Defund The Police Consequences, with Larry Elder and Don and Sondra Samuels | Ep. 131
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 25 minutes
Words per Minute
187.86337
Summary
Larry Elder and Sondra and Don Samuels join Megyn on the show to talk about the recall effort against Gov. Gavin Newsom, and why they think he has a chance to get on the ballot. Megyn also talks about the Minneapolis City Council's attempt to defund the Minneapolis Police Department.
Transcript
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Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, your home for open, honest, and provocative conversations.
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Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show.
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I'm in a hurry because you have got to hear our guests today.
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If you don't like this show, I'm not the show for you, right?
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This is not the show for you, but you will love this show. It's amazing.
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All right, we're going to kick it off with Larry Elder, who now is running to replace Gavin Newsom as the California governor.
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You know there's the recall effort to vote September 14th, and Larry has just thrown his hat into the ring.
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But the Secretary of State of California is giving him some guff on it and getting himself on the ballot.
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I think it'll happen, but so far they've been giving him sort of the rope-a-dope.
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So we're going to talk to Larry about that first and see whether he's actually got a chance.
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What does he think? What's the plan? What's he going to do out there?
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They have had Republican governors, even though it's a blue state.
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And then we're going to be joined by two people you're going to want to know, Don Samuels and Sondra Samuels.
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They have lived in the north side of Minneapolis for 24 years, and they are speaking out about the defund, the police, not just effort,
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but measures that have been taken there by their city council over the past year in the wake of George Floyd.
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I found the interview so infuriating, inspiring, illuminating, invigorating, all my eyes.
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Just listen to them, okay? Please, please, please, please listen to what they have to say.
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Voices of reason on this whole problem on both sides.
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They will open your eyes if you think police can commit no harm,
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and they will open your eyes if you think police need to be eliminated, defunded,
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and replaced with some, you know, random citizenry body.
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They're great. Okay, we're going to get to them in one second. First this.
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You've been busy since we last spoke, Mr. Governor.
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I ran a small business for about 14 years, and somebody once said,
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running a business is an exercise in terror and disorder.
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Whoever said that has never run a political campaign.
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This has just been a very, very wild ride, and I think I've been officially a politician for about 6.5 days now.
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It's not the certified ballot. That won't come out until Wednesday.
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And apparently what I failed to do was redact my Social Security number, which I was required to do.
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And the purpose behind that is to protect the candidate.
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So if somehow I screwed up or intentionally kept my Social Security number on there,
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And nobody that I've talked to, none of the election lawyers that I've hired or the ones I've spoken to just for consultation,
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believe it is serious enough to keep me off the ballot.
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We're going to have a hearing on Wednesday, and I would be shocked if I don't prevail
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and I ultimately get on the certified ballot come Wednesday.
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I'm going to run against this governor, and I'm going to take him down.
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And, Megan, I believe the reason for this is because they're afraid of me.
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Somebody asked me whether or not it was because of race.
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I said, please, it's because of face, as in the face of Larry Elder.
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That's who they're scared of, and that's what I think has happened.
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This is only the second gubernatorial recall in California history.
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The first one was in 2003 when Governor Gray Davis lost to Schwarzenegger.
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So it would be a huge deal if Gavin Newsom is actually recalled.
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And the way I understand it is you get on the ballot.
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That's the battle you're fighting right now, getting your name on the ballot.
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And it does seem like they're doing a rope-a-dope with you, Larry,
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because the Secretary of State had the opportunity to call any deficiencies,
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And yours is, I mean, really, you and Caitlyn Jenner are the only truly recognizable names
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on the list, although there's something like 60 potential candidates.
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But you're the one getting a lot of attention right now since Caitlyn's kind of petered out.
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So do you think it was intentional that they found an error that would keep your name off
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You know, I'm not a big conspiracy person, but it looks awfully, awfully fishy.
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And this is the first time this law has ever really been used.
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The requirement to turn in five years of tax returns was designed to make Donald Trump have
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turned over his tax returns, this is before they were turned over or stolen, on the California
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It was litigated all the way up to the California Supreme Court, Megan, and seven zip, it was
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But they did let it stand as to gubernatorial elections.
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It isn't even clear whether it applies to recall elections like this one.
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But the bottom line is, to use a fancy word, whatever errors I had on my applications is
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It doesn't really mean anything, and it ought not keep me off the ballot.
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This petition had 2.2 signatures to recall this man, and many of them were Democrats and
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And they were cheesed off by a number of things, most notably the way he slammed down this economy
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for the coronavirus, while he had his own kids enjoying in-school private education, while
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he exempted his own business and destroyed the lives of so many businesses here in California.
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Only one half of all the jobs have come back, as opposed to two-thirds in the average state
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And then we have the rise in crime, and the rise in homelessness, and the outrageous cost
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And this governor either is too incompetent or too unconcerned to do anything about it.
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So for all those reasons, I'm getting into this race.
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Now, is it true that, because I want to get back into the legal challenge, actually, for
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Do you think that by Wednesday, you'll have a ruling saying they have to put your name
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And if we lose, and we're not going to, it'll be appealed.
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And if it goes up to the same seven Supreme Court justices who ruled unanimously that this
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law did not apply to Donald Trump, I don't believe that they're going to rule against me.
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And furthermore, there are at least two other rival candidates, rival Republicans, who didn't
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Now, the IRS has given people an extension because of COVID, and I'm not saying they didn't
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comply, and I'm not saying they should be kicked off the ballot.
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But can you imagine what they would have done to me had I not included my 2020 tax returns,
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And why didn't they take the opportunity to raise this with you prior to when they released
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But we're still in time at this point because the vote is not until, what, September 14th?
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And there's a provision that allows the Secretary of State to correct any redactions or things
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that should have been redacted that weren't redacted.
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So she could have done something had she wanted to.
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And by the way, this new law doesn't even apply to Governor Gavin Newsom.
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He doesn't have to turn over five years of his tax return.
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So there's also an equal protection argument that we also made.
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So there's a bunch of arguments that have been made, any one of which, in my opinion,
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is powerful enough to reveal on its own, let alone about a half a dozen major arguments
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And we're going to post the brief online sometime before the end of the day.
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So assuming that you succeed in this battle to get your name on the actual ballot, then
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And as I understand it, there are two questions on the recall ballot.
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And only if they get a majority in response to that, do they move on to question number
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two, which is, who would you like to replace him with?
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She's just announced she's going off to Australia to film Big Brother VIP.
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And she says, look, I'm just honoring a prior work commitment, but I'm still totally into this
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Well, Megan, with all due respect, I'm going to duck your question because when I get that
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question, that means that we're turning our cannon fire on each other.
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As you pointed out, the first question is whether or not this man is going to be recalled.
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After that, the next question is, whom do you want to replace him?
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And whoever gets the greatest number will then replace him.
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But until and unless 50% plus one voter votes to recall Gavin Newsom, it doesn't matter how I
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So I want us all and I urge all the Republicans to keep your eye on the prize.
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This guy has lied about how many fallen trees he's cleared because we have our fifth season,
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We have an infrastructure for water and for power that is for a state half the size because
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of the environmental rules and regulations that the lawmakers in Sacramento have been
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foisting down the throats of Californians for decades, which is why the cost of living
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He cleaned toilets for two full-time jobs, managed to save enough money to buy a house
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in South Central, which is still in our family.
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No eighth grade dropout could have a stay-at-home wife, my mother, raise three boys until the
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latter of us was in middle school on a salary of two jobs, let alone three jobs, because
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The average price of a home in California is 150% more than the average price of a home
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And one of the people who I often consult on these kinds of matters is a brilliant economist
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He says the average price of a home in California is 50% more than otherwise would be, but for
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these environmental regulations that have developers treated like felons, while this
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governor has overseen the release of 20,000 real felons into our streets because of the
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So if he doesn't go, it doesn't matter what happens with the rest of us Republicans.
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And I appreciate somebody dodging my question by explicitly saying I'm dodging you.
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I haven't figured out yet how to be inauthentic and phony.
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Okay, so your problem in California, your biggest problem is that Democrats outnumber
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Republicans by about two to one, and that the governor's approval rating, it was 64%.
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Now amongst likely voters, the latest I read was it's at 54%, and some 49% said they don't
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It's tight enough it could go either way, but just looking at the sheer numbers, they
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say you're an underdog, and he's overwhelmingly favored to keep his job.
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Are you telling me that Megyn Kelly believes these polls?
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Honestly, the day before Donald Trump got elected, what did they say?
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By the way, I've conducted interview after interview after interview up and down the state,
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and I've not seen Governor Gavin Newsom conduct any interviews because how are you going
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How are you going to defend the outrageous homelessness?
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How are you going to defend the cost of living?
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How are you going to defend the fact that he is totally beholden by the teachers union?
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The largest contributor to this campaign, teachers wanted the schools shut down, even
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though the CDC said under certain precautions they could be reopened.
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75% of Black kids cannot read at state levels of proficiency in California.
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My former high school, Crenshaw High School, was the high school that was the center of
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I just checked yesterday, 2% of the students at my former high school are math proficient.
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Now, who the hell sends their kid to a school where only 2% of the kids are math proficient?
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And by the way, it is a school that is controlled by the gang called the Crips.
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Who sends their kid to a school like that if the parent has an option out?
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The majority of Black and Brown parents, the ones who pull the lever for the Democrats,
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So a whole bunch of people are rethinking their attitude and their allegiance to the
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And I believe they're going to take, they're going to rethink a whole lot of things come
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You can, it's a private ballot and you can pull the lever for Larry Elder and not tell your
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independent or Democrat friends that you've done so.
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That's a good, that's a good way of getting to the Californians.
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No one has to know, you know, it'll be just between us when I get to the gubernatorial
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The thing you have going for you, according to the local pollsters and sort of pundits,
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is there is apparently is Democratic apathy when it comes to this recall.
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Whereas on the GOP side, according to the locals who follow California politics, they say
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Again, because it's only the second gubernatorial recall effort in history there.
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So the Republicans are psyched up and, but, but the Republican field is pretty fractured.
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So, you know, there could be a split vote situation that undermines you or.
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Bring, bring, bring in the, the candidates that you just now mentioned.
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Everybody has a certain base, a certain number of followers.
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Uh, the, the idea is to generate interest in this election.
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What the Democrats have smartly done, however, is not enter a, a prominent Democrat in the election
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because they don't want him or her to take away votes from, from Gavin Newsom.
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So again, the prize is Gavin Newsom and tell him unless we get 50% plus one doesn't matter
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Uh, and, um, I'm urging people to go to elect elder.com, elect elder.com and throw a little
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By the way, Gavin Newsom has no finance limitations.
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He can raise as much money as he wants and spend as much money as he wants.
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And by the way, when it was pretty clear, I was going to announce all of a sudden, one
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of the major unions contributed $5 million to his campaign.
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I haven't raised that money, but I'm on track to raise a great deal of money.
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But this guy has unlimited powers, unlimited ability to raise and spend money.
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Because we've all been watching the national headlines now about what's happening in LA County
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where they've reimposed mandatory masks indoors, even for people who are fully vaccinated,
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which goes against CDC guidance, even, which says you don't need to wear a mask if you're
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But they're saying that the numbers in California are bad.
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I'm just looking at the latest hospitalizations are up 42% in California.
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And so, you know, his explanation and the explanation of the locals in LA is desperate times.
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And so we've got to sort of go back to these, what felt like draconian measures in order to
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What do you say to those people who say people will die if you do?
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No one is denying that the coronavirus is serious.
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But when you put it in context and look at, it's only about 10% what it was at its peak.
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Furthermore, you have the LA County Sheriff, Alex Villanueva, saying this is anti-science
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and I'm not going to use my manpower to enforce this.
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And again, there are story after story after story about what Gavin Newsom did, anti-science
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by shutting down the schools and by shutting down businesses.
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One of my campaign members has a brother who used to be a football coach in Oakland, happens
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Many of them did not have fathers and he was their father figure.
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And the coach and the regimen gave them structure.
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Two of these young men got into trouble with the law.
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One of them committed a crime so serious, he's going to be in jail for years.
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This would not have happened had Gavin Newsom not shut down the schools.
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This coach got so ticked off, he went to Tennessee where he now lives and where he's
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now being the kind of father figure for other people outside of California.
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Her son is 17 years old, one of the top 25 wrestlers in the state of California for
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And again, the coach begged the school to remain open.
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The kid was coaching, was being coached six days a week.
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He and mom were in the house month after month after month after month.
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He becomes sullen and morose and becomes suicidal.
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He had enough integrity and had a good enough relationship with his mom that he went up to
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You can swing a dead cat and get story after story after story like that because of what
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And one more time, I'm urging people to go to electelder.com and throw something in the
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They dropped a perfectly timed hit piece on you.
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This is if I didn't know you, Larry God, I would think you were a terrible man.
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There was a black led boycott against Larry Elder in the 1990s because of his racial views.
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He says black people are more racist than whites.
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He says he's he's engaged in white grievance politics.
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He has a delusion of rampant reverse racism taking place in this country, saying that your
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campaign builds on the fantasy that it's not racist to deny the threat of white supremacy.
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You've repeatedly twisted crime stats to portray black people as more violent than whites,
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And then there's he blames black community struggles on an alleged lack of self-determination.
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I don't think she's going to throw something in the tip jar.
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Pick up your magic wand and wave it over America and remove every smidgen of white racism
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Do we still have 70 percent of black kids entering the world without a father married
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Do we still have a 50 percent dropout rate in urban high schools?
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Are urban black boys still 25 percent of them with criminal records, either in jail, on
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Is a black child eight times more likely to be a victim of a homicide compared to a white
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If all of those things are true, what are we talking about here?
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These are situations that the left is ignoring.
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The fact that the welfare state has incentivized women to marry the government has allowed women
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to abandon, has allowed men to abandon their financial and memorial responsibility.
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So we've gone from 25 percent of black kids entering the world without a father married
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Are you telling me America is more racist today than it was in 1965?
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What who would you say, you know, for Californians who don't know you and they're wondering what
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kind of a politician you'd be, what kind of a leader would you be?
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Pick a politician and say, if you like this person, you'll you'll like me.
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As I said, I don't believe it's race, meaning the reason that I'm not on the ballot.
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I believe I can connect to people in a way that a lot of Republicans can't, either because
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They didn't kind of come out of public schools.
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But all I know is that I was raised by great parents.
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My father was a came to California, as I mentioned, in 1945 from the Jim Crow South.
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And my father, if anybody had a reason to be angry at the world, angry at America and
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calling America racist, it's my dad, who I didn't know his biological father, kicked
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out of the house when he was 13, joined the Marines, came back to Tennessee to get him
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And he was told, quote, we don't hire niggers in the book.
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He comes to California, walks around to get him a job as a short order cook.
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And he was told, we don't hire anybody without references.
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My dad said, I need references to make ham and eggs.
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So he starts a small cafe after he saves his nickels and dime from being a janitor.
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And my father always told my brothers and me, hard work wins.
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Larry, you cannot control the outcome, but you are 100% in control of the effort.
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And before you moan about what somebody else did to you, go to the nearest mirror, look
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at it and say, how could I have changed the outcome?
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And years ago, Megan, I was interviewed by 60 Minutes.
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So 60 Minutes comes to South Central and sets up all the cameras and the lights.
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And Morley Safer, the correspondent, sits my dad down and says, you know, your son, Larry
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says, if you work hard, keep your shoulder to the grindstone, you'll be just fine.
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And that's the only segment of my dad that made it into the program.
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I'm not saying it's easy, but it's that simple.
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My goodness, Barack Obama got elected in 2008, had a higher percentage of the white vote than
00:21:16.920
Obama's running for the nomination against Hillary.
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And Mitt Romney's running for the nomination against John McCain.
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And Gallup said, what percentage of Americans would not vote for a black president?
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What percentage of Americans would not vote for a female?
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What percentage of Americans would not vote for a Mormon?
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What percentage of Americans would not vote for a man 72 years old when he became president,
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Obama had a lower hurdle than these three white politicians.
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Making sure that you are good enough to be able to compete in this economy and get a
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The left-wing think tank, the Brookings Institution, Megan, said there are three things you need
00:22:02.600
Presumably one good enough so that you can read, write, and compute at grade level.
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Number two, don't have a kid before you get married.
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They didn't say that only applies to white people.
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The left always wants to bring up race because they know that if they can get 13% of black
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people all upset about social justice, they'll pull the lever for the Democratic Party, ignoring
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that this is the same party that denies them choice in school, which urban parents, according
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You know, the other thing that the LA Times came after you on, and we talked about this
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last time you were on, you're proud of the fact, they're shocked and horrified by the
00:22:38.120
fact that you've mentored a lot of people in the conservative movement, including Stephen
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Miller, who is completely demonized while working for Trump, and Candace Owens, who is
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very open about the fact that you're her mentor and who we love.
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But, you know, she's another person who they say is a white supremacist.
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And the question is, I know all this is BS, but I do wonder how will the California, California
00:23:02.920
How are the voters there going to think about you mentoring folks like Candace and Stephen
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and, you know, you having these very heterodox views when it comes to things like Black Lives
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Matter and welfare, which we're getting back to at the federal level, right?
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Like, do you think they're going to hold that against you?
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And the primary victims of this crime are black and brown people that the people on the
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Homelessness, which is a hygienic problem, it diminishes property values, causes insurance
00:23:43.800
And again, I just saw an article about the LAUSD, the Los Angeles Unified School District.
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Two-thirds of black parents do not want to send their kids back.
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And the district put out a statement, and it was something like this, and this is almost
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verbatim, quote, the district needs to develop an inclusive and strategic approach to supporting
00:24:02.500
the achievement of black students, close quote.
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What the hell have you guys been doing for the last several decades?
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I'm going to be the champion of people who want school choice.
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Eighty percent of the students at public schools in California are black and brown.
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And I'm told that between five and seven percent of them are incompetent, Megan.
00:24:27.120
That means 15,000 teachers are unleashed on the school systems every single year, miseducating
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Imagine if five percent of them were incompetent.
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Say what you want about the trial of Derek Chauvin.
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And in a normal environment, if you have 15 complaints against you, you get fired.
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If five percent of the LAPD were bad, that's a thousand cops unleashed on the streets of
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Why are we putting up with 15,000 incompetent teachers unleashed in the classrooms of black
00:25:10.120
I mentioned Gavin Newsom has his own kids in person, private education, while he was shutting
00:25:16.280
This is something that is taking off everybody, independents and Democrats, no matter the race.
00:25:26.400
I don't believe the cost of living has a color.
00:25:28.420
And I can make the case in a way far more persuasive than I think anybody else can.
00:25:32.340
I've been on radio in California for almost 30 years, Megan.
00:25:35.260
All the major markets, San Diego down up to Sacramento, people know me.
00:25:40.680
And they know that I've got some practical things that I'm going to bring to the table on how
00:25:48.180
That's what's so refreshing about you is you don't actually have a politician's filter.
00:25:56.140
You don't have this veneer the way somebody like a Gavin Newsom does, who seems like he's
00:26:00.260
tested every talking point, not to mention his hair, before he goes out there on camera.
00:26:05.220
I do think there's a chance that's really going to resonate, even with people who might
00:26:13.940
But then I wonder, in a state that's already controlled by the teachers' unions, that really
00:26:18.860
hasn't done so well on school choice, how do you convince them, right?
00:26:23.740
And then I just look at sort of the disdain for Gavin Newsom by Republicans, right?
00:26:30.600
French laundry, you stay home, but I'm going to go out to eat.
00:26:32.960
You send your kids to public school, but I'm going to send mine to private school.
00:26:35.440
And I question the other side, is there enough disdain for the guy at this point that people
00:26:39.840
are going to say, you know what, like they did with Trump, let's just take a shot.
00:26:45.580
And what Trump said, of course, is what do you have to lose?
00:26:47.540
I was talking to a Bay Area, probably a Sacramento black newspaper.
00:26:52.100
And as they were setting up, I can tell that they weren't feeling me.
00:26:54.800
And during the interview, I said, aren't you tired?
00:26:57.540
Aren't you tired of a teacher's union controlling the schools to the point where 75% of black kids
00:27:03.200
Aren't you tired of these white liberals who belong to the Sierra Club and to Ducks Unlimited
00:27:08.920
filing lawsuits that stopped the construction of homes so that the price of housing has gotten
00:27:13.620
so high, the percentage of black living in San Francisco and in LA has gone down.
00:27:20.040
I said, do you know anybody black who belongs to Ducks Unlimited?
00:27:28.840
I'm not saying they became Reagan Republicans overnight, but I think they're going to go
00:27:32.120
in there and quietly pull that lever for Larry Elder and not tell their friends.
00:27:37.560
The other example of that kind of hypocrisy that we saw so much during the COVID shutdowns
00:27:43.960
And Cori Bush, representative of Missouri, comes out.
00:27:47.300
This is she's a big defund the police advocate.
00:27:52.500
She has spent $70,000 on private security for herself.
00:27:58.740
And she had a private guard, private security over the past few months, $70,000.
00:28:03.000
The average person in California, not her state, but still cannot do that.
00:28:07.920
And yet they are beholden to these politicians who want to take this sort of moral ground of
00:28:13.360
And then they've got almost $100,000 to spend on their own security while the people in South
00:28:17.300
Central are going to have to fend for themselves.
00:28:19.800
And St. Louis, where Cori Bush is from, we often pick on Chicago as the murder capital
00:28:24.540
of the world because they have the largest number of murders in absolute numbers.
00:28:28.000
But in terms of per capita homicides, St. Louis is three times more deadly than Chicago.
00:28:37.620
Running around, talking about defunding the police.
00:28:43.960
And that's why, again, I'm urging people to go to electelder.com and let's stop some of this
00:28:51.080
Now, wait, is there a chance that they reject you on Wednesday?
00:28:53.900
And if they reject you on Wednesday, you can file an appeal.
00:28:57.160
Is it not over until the ballot actually, you know, the vote is actually out on September
00:29:01.920
Because like, how long do you have to resolve this issue of getting your name on?
00:29:04.160
It's not over until if I get rejected on Wednesday and I'm not.
00:29:07.940
It then goes up to the Supreme Court on an expedited basis.
00:29:10.720
So we should know within a few days whether or not I'm going to be on the ballot.
00:29:16.280
Yeah, I don't believe that Gavin Newsom has the cashews to debate me.
00:29:25.040
I've not even seen this man because he can't defend his record.
00:29:27.280
I've never heard quite that that term used, but I guess I'm picking up what you're putting
00:29:40.580
And he won't because he's, you know, he's the favorite.
00:29:47.520
This is like not happening as far as he's concerned.
00:29:51.020
And also the other other reason is he won't win.
00:29:54.160
William B. Buckley had a show on PBS called Firing Line for 33 years.
00:29:58.340
And he was asked, why is it despite the numerous invitations you've made to then Attorney General
00:30:05.060
And Buckley said, why does the baloney avoid the grinder?
00:30:18.100
I mean, I would pay money to see that debate by any amount.
00:30:21.100
We could have a debate solved budget by selling tickets.
00:30:25.080
If you put this on pay-per-view and said you'd split the proceeds, you'd both benefit mightily.
00:30:32.200
I don't think he's going to accept, but I'll propose it.
00:30:38.580
Larry Elder, electelder.com for a tip if you are so interested.
00:30:48.160
Okay, so it'll be fun to continue watching what happens with Larry.
00:30:50.480
I predict he gets on the ballot and then we'll see.
00:30:53.200
Then we'll wait till September to see whether, can you imagine Governor Elder?
00:31:03.040
I think Caitlyn Jenner, I think she's kind of out of it, frankly.
00:31:07.700
That's not where she, at heart, she's still a Kardashian.
00:31:17.300
In any event, let me introduce you to two amazing people.
00:31:20.420
Don Samuels and Sondra Samuels, who are taking Minneapolis by storm and they are not taking
00:31:26.660
what's happening to their city when it comes to the increase in crime, in shootings and
00:31:31.220
homicides, including of little children, including in the past couple of weeks and this week,
00:31:38.040
They're fighting back and they've got a roadmap for how you can too.
00:31:47.140
Don and Sondra, thank you so much for being here.
00:31:52.480
In reading the Daily Mail account of what you did and what you've been through and Don,
00:32:01.180
Let's try to explain it to the audience so they can understand.
00:32:04.140
You live, as I understand it, on the north side of Minneapolis and you've been there
00:32:18.060
I just hit half a century as a birthday, so I understand.
00:32:22.600
And walk us through what kind of a neighborhood, before the whole defund the police and the
00:32:26.880
George Floyd situation, what kind of a neighborhood was it?
00:32:30.620
Well, north Minneapolis is a quadrant of the city.
00:32:44.520
And it's also a fifth of the population, a little less than 20%.
00:32:53.160
So while it's a larger geographical area, it's a small population.
00:32:57.260
It's got the youngest population in the city and the lowest income population in the city
00:33:13.840
It was the least safe community, traditionally.
00:33:19.480
But we had been making progress, I would say, on crime over time, gradually.
00:33:29.300
That was a big part of what we were doing there in terms of, for the last quarter century,
00:33:34.580
working in partnership with the police, with our neighbors, with the Police Athletic League,
00:33:40.640
you know, with the city and really worked block club meetings and national night out and door
00:33:48.720
And, you know, we started an organization called the Peace Foundation, Public Engagement, Community
00:33:53.460
Empowerment, and really felt like, like we knew we had a higher level of crime than the rest
00:34:01.720
of the city, but felt like we were making a lot of progress.
00:34:09.220
I mean, what was your experience in dealing with the police?
00:34:12.660
Because, of course, we've heard all sorts of different accounts in different pockets
00:34:17.620
Well, we've, you know, over the 25 years, we have been working closely with the police
00:34:25.360
because even though we were intensely engaged community members, they were our last resort,
00:34:34.500
And so we, with all the block clubs and neighborhood organization activities and so on, and strategies,
00:34:42.620
the police were the people we called when things fell apart or when things got beyond our
00:34:50.760
And so I became a council member out of that whole movement of neighborhood engagement.
00:34:56.540
And my neighbors asked me to run after we'd kind of succeeded in tamping down crime in
00:35:10.500
And Sandra then took over the Peace Foundation and that morphed into the Northside Achievement
00:35:16.100
Zone, modeled after the Harlem Children's Zone, to address the whole Northside crime through
00:35:29.840
But I do want to add, though, Megan, while we work with the police, it is true that the
00:35:36.140
police police black low-income communities differently.
00:35:39.600
And though we were never harmed personally, we knew several stories of black young men who
00:35:49.500
We knew several stories of a different response to our white neighbors who would call the police
00:35:59.360
And in fact, one of our white female neighbors, white, blonde hair, blue eyes, you know, single
00:36:09.960
mom, she said that when she would call the police for various things, they would say, why do you
00:36:21.300
One of the older white couples who moved like right after we moved in, they said that the
00:36:27.440
police would follow their daughter home, their white daughter from high school.
00:36:32.520
She went to North High to make sure she was safe in our neighborhood.
00:36:41.560
And so, and then Donna's council person, you heard the stories.
00:36:45.460
And by the way, we are among the highest income people in our neighborhood.
00:36:52.060
And so, yeah, and then I was on the council and I saw, you know, I was sat in on the closed
00:36:59.500
sessions where lawyer, lawyer, client privilege allowed us to not have an open meeting.
00:37:11.480
And yes, you saw videotapes of cops kicking people and we had to settle cases because they
00:37:17.100
had violated the city's policies and had gone beyond the pail and punching and so on and
00:37:27.120
Where did that leave you, you know, emotionally, right?
00:37:30.060
Because you're saying you needed them as a last resort.
00:37:32.800
I'm sure you had some positive interactions with them.
00:37:40.080
So like, how were you, pre-George Floyd, how are you feeling about the police?
00:37:43.580
A little helpless about that part, because we had kind of, I guess you could say, almost
00:37:51.000
resigned ourselves to it because it was such an unfixable issue with the union, the power
00:37:59.120
of the union over the years to accumulate privileges.
00:38:03.240
Every negotiation point over the decades and decades would result in some bargaining that
00:38:10.900
would accrue power, more and more power to the union to negotiate on behalf of their
00:38:19.940
And so by the time, you know, a new council member, a new council and mayor come in, the
00:38:25.300
insulation is so thick and you're still trying to make concessions, right?
00:38:30.820
You're still trying to put a pause on wages because the economy is down and so on.
00:38:35.920
And then you have to negotiate with the union for their, to pause their wages.
00:38:45.100
And so instead of actually shrinking the insulation, the insulation keeps getting padded with every
00:38:54.140
And Megan, I want to add, but a kind of black life in America is, so on the ground, every
00:39:04.320
So we have great friends who are police, right?
00:39:09.020
And, and who we wouldn't be able to live in North Minneapolis without them.
00:39:12.580
And at the same time, there's so many systems levels.
00:39:16.300
And Don's mentioning that with the union so that Don, you've mentioned that 50% of the
00:39:21.440
time and three police chiefs worked under you when he was on city council, Megan, and 50%
00:39:27.100
of the time when a chief would fire a police officer like Chauvin, 50% of the time, because
00:39:35.600
of union negotiations, they would be forced to rehire them.
00:39:41.520
And so then the, so then the chief starts to, to check, check his actions.
00:39:47.720
He would not recommend a firing or fire someone unless he was absolutely sure that this one
00:39:56.100
would go through and half the time it wouldn't.
00:39:58.900
So that meant not only would half of the bad guys come back, but then some bad guys wouldn't
00:40:04.900
even get fired because the chief felt like it wasn't even worth it.
00:40:08.500
This is reminding me of what we see sometimes with the teachers unions, where you cannot
00:40:16.300
The union's so powerful and who ends up suffering?
00:40:20.660
And the worst, the thing they have in common is that in both cases, it's the African American
00:40:28.320
And so the general racism in the society allows adult prerogatives to supersede black children's
00:40:39.760
and black population prerogatives because it's not worth changing for that population.
00:40:47.840
Then George Floyd happens, which was disturbing to the country.
00:40:51.380
And Minneapolis started like the city council then and the mayor started talking about defund
00:40:59.300
They did defund the police to the tune of several million dollars.
00:41:03.260
And they started making all sorts of statements about how they were going to stop training the
00:41:07.160
police and they were going to not rehire for the positions that police started to vacate
00:41:11.520
in droves, you know, sort of like, don't let the door hit you on the way out.
00:41:15.400
And by the way, we have no desire to replace your position.
00:41:17.980
And how did that manifest in your neighborhood?
00:41:25.440
One thing, Megan, the mayor has never been for defunding.
00:41:28.980
So he's a Democratic mayor who is basically on an island.
00:41:34.980
So 13 council members of the different wards in the city.
00:41:38.900
And in fact, he is reviled and has been humiliated because he would not agree to defunding.
00:41:52.420
I mean, they came to his condo downtown and demanded he say that he, after the city council
00:42:11.880
City council can defund without the mayor's blessing.
00:42:17.380
And then they can make decisions through the budget to impact the police.
00:42:25.600
You know, it's like, I will confess, not on this level at all, but even on the Upper West
00:42:29.800
Side of New York, where I live, you can start to see crime start to move into the area, homelessness
00:42:36.480
You could definitely see the lower police presence shortly after New York pulled a billion dollars
00:42:41.680
And just there was general police malaise in the wake of, you know, all of them being
00:42:51.120
But so I mean, what I read is it was a it was an egregious and extremely dangerous situation
00:42:58.220
Everything was on the extreme, whatever you observed in upside, upper west side.
00:43:05.520
It was, you know, multiple times in our community because it's because of the historical trajectories
00:43:14.580
of where the population, our population being the most likely to be involved in the criminal
00:43:22.980
Then we were the most likely to have people return to our community because COVID was they
00:43:33.340
We were the most likely to have children who did not have good connections to school through
00:43:38.540
Internet and so on and didn't have the kind of parents who were equipped to help them through
00:43:44.920
with their homework and schoolwork and, you know, work with them during COVID.
00:43:50.120
And, you know, every little inch and detail of quality of life, we were more impacted because
00:44:02.580
I've never heard somebody pull it together like that.
00:44:05.180
But what was happening with COVID with the kids, what's happening with the prisons going
00:44:09.100
and people being released going back to the neighborhoods.
00:44:11.400
And at the same time, the police are disappearing.
00:44:17.660
And then and then children started getting shot, which I just I mean, you know, Sandra, I
00:44:24.780
can't imagine I was reading in the account of what happened when you guys had a community
00:44:29.780
block meeting not long ago and a little eight year old and a little three year old coming
00:44:35.440
to you about the some odd 60 gunshots that were heard during the course of the meeting.
00:44:44.140
And it was my first time in the neighborhood, you know, being there for close to 25 years
00:44:49.440
and raising our three daughters there and never wondering, Megan, if they were going to make
00:44:56.920
But it was my first time looking at one of our frightened neighbors, her daughter, and
00:45:02.240
and saying, you know, it's it'll be OK, you know, we're going to protect you.
00:45:08.040
And I knew I wasn't telling the truth, that I wasn't sure, like like for the first time
00:45:13.700
in my 55 years, I felt like as an adult in my community, I was impotent when it came to
00:45:21.100
protecting our children and couldn't promise really that she would be OK.
00:45:25.880
And it has been, Megan, that's the thing, it is it has been an onslaught.
00:45:32.820
And this is the other thing I do want to add, the murder of George Floyd, also on top of
00:45:38.500
the COVID and everything that was happening in community and what's happening with the
00:45:43.020
And by the way, the courts are releasing violent offenders.
00:45:47.720
It's one thing to let people go who are not violent.
00:45:50.540
It's another thing when the police arrest and and they are right back out on the street.
00:45:57.540
Violent folks who are carjacking people at gunpoint.
00:46:02.560
But the other thing also, Megan, that the bandaid got ripped off was the racial pain,
00:46:09.260
the trauma associated with yet again another unarmed black person being killed.
00:46:21.200
Ten-year-old LaDevion Garrett shot in the head, driving with his father in our neighborhood.
00:46:31.660
And this was all within the last couple of months.
00:46:34.260
But we don't know what the quality of his life will be, even if he and we pray that he
00:46:41.140
A nine-year-old Trinity Addison Smith, she was shot while jumping on a trampoline just
00:46:55.780
And then there was six-year-old Anaya, who we call Naya Allen.
00:47:00.420
And she was shot at coming, getting a happy meal with her mom in the car, in the head.
00:47:08.380
Since we, over this weekend, Megan, or I don't know what day it is now, Tuesday, another three-year-old
00:47:26.000
We are up 19% of all the shooting victims in the city, Megan.
00:47:44.400
So we are by far 50% of the victims who were shot in the city.
00:47:48.820
And, but we, but the uptick is not as big as in some neighborhoods in Minneapolis that
00:47:56.040
are more affluent and have never seen this level of violence and are seeing it now.
00:48:03.520
And then when you, when you hear 166 people shot in one part of this lowest population part
00:48:10.080
of the city, it seems like, okay, people got grazed, people got, you know, but one, one
00:48:17.360
example, for instance, to show you how anonymous these folks are, when Anaya was shot in the
00:48:24.940
head and killed, a high schooler was shot, the same incident, and was paralyzed.
00:48:33.780
Nobody mentions that because it's such a minor part of the demographic story.
00:48:40.080
But when you hear 166 people killed in our community, you better believe that there's
00:48:49.740
a significant amount of those people who have been maimed.
00:48:58.700
Thinking about these littles getting shot, their lives snuffed out on the way home from
00:49:03.620
McDonald's doing nothing, sitting with their moms.
00:49:05.820
I mean, the amount of trauma that is being heaped in your community, that each, even one
00:49:20.260
One, one of the eight of us who, one family, two, two of the eight people who filed a lawsuit
00:49:27.340
with us, they had to move from their home where they've lived for about 15 years.
00:49:38.020
Because their child, one of their children began to be traumatized.
00:49:41.800
Their 11 year old started sleeping on his parents' floor for months and began to have
00:49:47.900
all kinds of full sweat, psychos, shaking, psychological problems.
00:49:55.980
Up next, Don and Sandra have been working with police for a long time, you know, in tandem
00:50:01.900
And they have noticed the cops are demoralized.
00:50:07.280
But before we get to that, I want to bring you a feature we have here on the MK show called
00:50:12.120
And that's basically where I get to talk about really whatever I want, whatever we
00:50:16.140
think is interesting you might want to hear about.
00:50:17.980
And today we're going to talk about Naomi Osaka because I've gotten, I got into more Twitter
00:50:23.760
I've been getting in a lot of Twitter fights lately for some reason.
00:50:26.200
I actually believe it's because the serious announcement came out recently and now the
00:50:32.580
Not just me, but anybody who's considered more of the right.
00:50:35.880
You know, the New York Times, I think it was the Times one after Ben Shapiro.
00:50:41.300
Recently, or they went after Black Rifle Coffee.
00:50:44.120
It's just like you can see sort of figures on the right or perceived right getting targeted
00:50:52.200
So I've been critical of Naomi Osaka, who I admire as a tennis player.
00:50:59.220
Number two in the world because she came out and objected to doing the press conferences
00:51:06.980
This is the same woman who wore BLM masks of various people killed by police, seven different
00:51:13.640
masks on her face during the US Open last year.
00:51:17.780
So she clearly has no problem inviting media coverage on her terms.
00:51:22.660
But the press conferences, I guess she sees differently.
00:51:25.960
And she sort of showed her cards about why she didn't like it first.
00:51:29.000
She said, look, I don't like what happens at these press conferences.
00:51:31.480
It feels like kicking a person when they're down.
00:51:33.780
And then she said, if organizations like this think they can just keep saying do press
00:51:38.000
or you're going to be fined and continue to ignore the mental health of the athletes that
00:51:42.420
are the centerpiece of their cooperation, then I just got to laugh.
00:51:46.340
And the French Open said, well, we do think we're going to fine you because all the athletes
00:51:50.120
talk to the press after the press is the people's representatives.
00:51:55.240
And they were supported by all the Grand Slams.
00:51:57.580
And so and by the way, this is the highest paid female athlete in the world.
00:52:00.160
OK, Naomi Osaka made $55 million last year, thanks to her public image, brought to you
00:52:06.920
That's really how you get to know these athletes and these superstars.
00:52:12.760
Then a bunch of athletes actually sort of came out and said, this is kind of, you know, we
00:52:23.540
There was more pushback than that, including by the Grand Slam tournaments.
00:52:26.700
And she then came out and expanded on the mental health messaging.
00:52:32.740
But the problem for Naomi and where I sort of got convinced that this might not be the
00:52:40.700
Her sister came out at the same time and sort of gave it up and said, look, tennis players
00:52:48.600
And she said, and this is me quoting the older sister, Naomi mentioned to me before the tournament
00:52:53.620
that a family member had come up to her and remarked that she's bad at clay.
00:52:57.760
OK, a family member at every press conference, she's told she has a bad record on clay when
00:53:07.260
And I think that everyone's remarks and opinions have gotten into her head.
00:53:15.720
And she knows that in order to do well and have a shot at winning Roland Garros, that's
00:53:19.160
the French Open, she will have to believe that she can.
00:53:27.760
No talking to people who are going to put doubt in her mind.
00:53:30.440
She's protecting her mind, hence why it's called mental health.
00:53:35.080
So many people are picky on this term, thinking you need to have depression or some sort of disorder
00:53:42.020
And then she goes on to talk about how tennis players don't get paid for press conferences.
00:53:52.280
We're talking about trying to keep negative people out of your head.
00:53:56.920
I'm not an athlete, but I get it even in my business.
00:53:59.300
I don't like putting negative people in my head either.
00:54:06.360
They do get paid for these press conferences because it's part of the whole deal that the
00:54:10.980
athletes agree to when they perform at these tournaments.
00:54:13.940
So I understand her feeling, but that's not a justification for you getting special treatment
00:54:20.660
over all the other athletes, many of whom also hate dealing with the press.
00:54:24.760
That's when Naomi came out and said, oh, no, no, no, no.
00:54:27.440
I've this is about me being an introvert, having huge waves of social anxiety before I speak
00:54:34.280
to the media that I had long bouts of depression since the U.S.
00:54:39.920
And I can't I can't speak to the media because it just causes too much social anxiety for me.
00:54:52.880
There's no more praising anybody for getting past a challenge like that.
00:54:58.300
It's more like lean into your your whatever, whatever your struggle is, you lean into it.
00:55:07.740
Don't don't deal with the press and sort of emerge victorious.
00:55:15.380
This is where I started to turn on it saying she already gave it up.
00:55:19.400
Now she made it sound super big because she was getting all this blowback.
00:55:23.040
And then on the on the heels of that, we find out that she has no problem doing press.
00:55:28.300
She's since she made this announcement and withdrew from the French Open under all the controversy.
00:55:32.980
She's been on the cover of Vogue Japan, Time, Sports Illustrated.
00:55:36.780
She's done a Netflix documentary, fashion deals.
00:55:39.480
And now she's even promoting a Barbie of herself.
00:55:41.640
This woman has no problem doing press just as long as nobody's asking about how she apparently
00:55:48.480
That's that is what my lawyerly background tells me is happening here.
00:55:57.380
So Clay Travis tweeted out something about her magazine covers, and I sort of added on to
00:56:06.980
OK, she actually responded saying she blocked me at the same time she responded to me, which
00:56:17.080
Anyway, it said, seeing as you're a journalist, I would have assumed you would take the time
00:56:22.720
to research what the lead times are for magazines.
00:56:26.100
And if you did that, you would have found out I shot all my covers last year.
00:56:29.920
Well, I understand that a lot of those big magazines, Vogue and probably Sports Illustrated,
00:56:36.700
As for the time magazine piece that she wrote all about Roland Garros in that magazine, she
00:56:43.960
wrote an essay for the magazine about her decision to withdraw from the French Open.
00:56:48.740
And that was after she was she was fined for refusing to take part in the mandated news
00:56:53.920
So that 100 percent came after that did not happen three months prior to Roland Garros.
00:56:59.660
So the point is she'll do press if on her terms.
00:57:03.820
She just doesn't want to do press that asks her tough questions.
00:57:09.720
And that is why people like Rafa Nadal have come out and said this is me quoting him.
00:57:15.380
We as athletes need to be ready to accept questions and produce answers without the press
00:57:25.480
We would not have fifty five million dollars in endorsement deals like Naomi does.
00:57:29.780
Ashley Barty, world's number one, said speaking to the press is part of the job.
00:57:35.120
Even the Women's Tennis Association came out and said, look, we understand the importance
00:57:39.780
of mental health, but professional athletes have a responsibility to to deal with their
00:57:46.660
fans, to deal with the media, to speak to the media surrounding their competition.
00:57:51.700
And since then, you've had people like Boris Becker come out and said, look, if you can't deal
00:57:54.980
with the media, it's very difficult to be a professional tennis player.
00:57:59.340
A lot of us don't like it, but it's part of the job.
00:58:01.700
And then he went on to say her claim that this is just too pressure filled, doesn't
00:58:05.820
You know, like he made the point of like, look at these people who are dealing with the
00:58:09.060
loss of their businesses, the loss of their jobs.
00:58:12.200
Speaking to the media, asking about how you're not that great on clay.
00:58:16.340
And we shouldn't be bending over backwards to say that she's a hero for saying that, you
00:58:23.500
I will note just as an aside that Martina Navarrola, she decided to weigh in on this.
00:58:28.420
And that's probably my favorite, favorite part of the whole dust up.
00:58:31.840
She actually called me an asshole for my tweet, right?
00:58:39.480
And I guess she's not that tough unless she's on the court.
00:58:46.840
Actually, being an asshole, as you so elegantly put it, is calling for riots everywhere, as
00:58:51.460
you did after George Floyd died while you sat in one of your mansions in zero danger.
00:58:56.120
Nineteen people died in said riots, including David Dorn.
00:58:58.920
Now you want to pretend you care about others, please.
00:59:01.380
And the other thing about Martina, which I also pointed out, was this woman was among
00:59:05.660
those who piled up on Naomi when she first made her.
00:59:08.660
And Martina came out and said, this is not a mental health issue.
00:59:17.920
Then she got all this blowback and suddenly she wants to be her champion.
00:59:22.060
I respect you more if you just be honest, right?
00:59:24.200
Like you're either for her from the beginning or not.
00:59:26.540
But like, let's not pretend you're her champion because you're not.
00:59:32.040
But I also, to me, it underscores how you must have one view in today's day and age,
00:59:40.240
I have to accept Naomi's statements that she can't deal with any media unless it's Vogue
00:59:46.600
or Time or Sports Illustrated and unless it was prior to Roland Garros.
00:59:54.300
What a journalist job is, frankly, to be skeptical.
00:59:56.760
It's not to be a cheerleader for the for, you know, all the people that we cover.
01:00:02.000
And I just think that the pushback to try to silence opinions that are nuanced and maybe
01:00:07.440
off the sort of beaten path where everybody's going is problematic.
01:00:14.280
And I think it's part of the reason that the trust in media is so low and we're so fractured
01:00:25.100
I hope she wins and I hope she represents the country and kick some butt.
01:00:29.060
I also hope that she gets honest with herself and and realizes that the more you lean into
01:00:34.220
challenges, however real they may be, and conquer them, the stronger you are.
01:00:40.640
And that's the example I'd like to set for my own daughter.
01:00:49.340
You can submit them by going subscribing to the show, downloading the show, and you can
01:01:04.340
Is it true that there have been no arrests in these cases you just mentioned?
01:01:14.400
Not in the not in the shot, the the children's shot.
01:01:27.460
And the cops, of course, not only were the cops defunded, they were also demoralized.
01:01:33.280
You know, there was this whole concept of you guys are bad guys.
01:01:42.960
And so there's been a kind of naive type of leadership, totally misunderstanding the impact
01:01:50.000
of negative feedback and criticism on the workforce.
01:01:57.700
You know, at the end of the day, they're the workforce.
01:02:00.020
And if you constantly are putting down your workers, even though some of them are not good
01:02:06.240
workers, everybody's going to be eventually demoralized.
01:02:11.200
There have been studies showing that, right, that where police misbehave or, you know, commit
01:02:16.040
an egregious act and it's handled on a local level.
01:02:18.820
The police officers punished, fired, what have you.
01:02:24.420
But when it becomes a big national story and it winds up on loop, you know, on some national
01:02:28.780
news program over and over and over and the narrative gets started that the cops are
01:02:32.500
bad, the cops are all racist, the cops are all this, that, the other thing, police pull
01:02:39.020
They're spitting at cops, you know, they're spitting, yelling at cops, throwing things.
01:02:43.860
And when the cops come to help, people are yelling at them.
01:02:46.920
And, and, and, and one of the things, Megan, I tell you is so, and like you were mentioning
01:02:52.280
when it's, when it's handled on a local level, what, what, what period we're in now in our
01:02:57.220
history in this country is that it's no longer just local because we have smartphones.
01:03:03.020
So this is national, the, the part of the force that is racist, that does abuse communities
01:03:21.920
And so all of that trauma is swelling up in this perfect storm.
01:03:30.200
That, that, you know, the bad cops now, we can't see them again.
01:03:42.000
And so far our city council and many, many councils, you know, across the country are not,
01:03:49.580
they're handling it irresponsibly, naively, and dangerously.
01:03:55.080
And that's this big overarching sweep that we are defunding and abolishing the police.
01:04:01.840
And we don't care what the collateral damage is.
01:04:07.480
And by the way, they're all going to look like Don and I in Minneapolis of all of the
01:04:12.520
people shot year to date, 83% of those people are black, Megan.
01:04:21.620
And it seems as if the activist community are considering that to be the necessary collateral
01:04:33.480
What's the racial makeup of the, of the city council?
01:04:41.040
So the two, our two council people who cover North Minneapolis are both defunders, for example.
01:04:49.980
They're our, the most, the place where 80, where, where all the folks are, look like us
01:04:55.940
All the children that we mentioned, Megan, we didn't say it, but they're all African-American.
01:05:01.420
Why don't, why don't those two city council members take a look at that?
01:05:04.660
I mean, you think, you ask yourself, how can they be in favor of defunding?
01:05:09.500
That's where we're, we're, we're befuddled by that as well.
01:05:12.680
And we were shocked when we saw them have the big defund announcement last summer on
01:05:18.900
And by the way, that is in defiance of the polls.
01:05:29.800
I mean, I've been saying that just in my neighborhood, like I live in a doorman building.
01:05:34.560
I, I'm not out there calling for defunding the police, even though I see that they're
01:05:38.280
by far from perfect, I won't have to pay the penalty, right?
01:05:42.320
I understand it's black and brown communities in, in some of the more crime rooted areas
01:05:47.540
who, and you know, moms and dads and kids who are going to have to deal with this, which
01:05:53.880
It's usually white women wearing Lululemon, you know, and a sign trying to make pronouncements
01:05:59.680
for communities that they have no real connection to.
01:06:07.080
So, you know, all the drama with George Floyd Square, how they had blocked it off and you
01:06:12.220
couldn't get in and they weren't letting media in and, you know, at different times.
01:06:16.840
But when you, when you would go, it was becoming a garrison community, right?
01:06:21.780
And when you, when you went, we went, you know, a couple of times there were, it was white
01:06:27.460
young women who were standing guard and manning these little booths, you know, when you would
01:06:34.340
come in and, and I mean, they were like, they're in force and it was like, oh my goodness,
01:06:40.560
like you get to say whether George Floyd Square is open or not.
01:06:44.840
And you get to say whether we can, whether we can come.
01:06:48.620
Well, they didn't, of course, they didn't say anything to us.
01:06:53.260
But yeah, it is, it is the most, it is absolutely.
01:07:04.320
We talked about what, I mean, we are adamant about that.
01:07:07.840
And we have an African-American police chief who grew up in Minneapolis.
01:07:14.500
And I mean, Megan, if you met Chief Arradondo, you'd want to be his best friend.
01:07:22.940
And he has a, he sued the police department himself as a police officer because of the racism,
01:07:32.140
And ultimately became chief and has all kinds of things that he's working on in terms of reform.
01:07:44.800
Saying that Chauvin's action violated every policy.
01:07:51.440
People forget it was Chauvin, but it was a bunch of police officers against Chauvin at that trial.
01:07:56.440
All right, so let me move forward to the lawsuit because I do want to get your thoughts on that.
01:08:00.360
So you guys, to your credit, and I'm now hearing your history about what you've done in your
01:08:04.260
own neighborhood, it makes more sense to me because you've been organized, you've been
01:08:10.040
So this starts happening and the deaths start happening and you, a team of eight, as I understand,
01:08:16.280
eight plaintiffs get together and file a lawsuit against the city council.
01:08:20.900
And I understand the mayor, I think you can explain that, but saying you've failed to
01:08:27.820
live up to the city charter, which requires that there be a certain number of police per
01:08:33.240
member of the citizenry and you've fallen below and you won.
01:08:41.660
So tell me, how did you feel about the lawsuit and what was the reaction to it locally?
01:08:46.460
Well, you know, let me say that when we filed the lawsuit, we understood that this 740, 730
01:08:56.180
to 750 number that it will eventually be after the new census numbers come out was not even
01:09:05.160
And that he's talking about of police officers for a city our size.
01:09:09.980
750 is what the charter requires for a population our size.
01:09:17.440
But, but that's, that's 130 less than what, what the force is designed for.
01:09:29.860
Well, we were about a hundred, a hundred less than where we were a year ago.
01:09:38.820
And they were projecting, I'm trying to get my numbers in front of me, but they were projecting
01:09:46.080
They were saying by June of 2022, we'll have only 669 officers.
01:09:53.720
So it was going in the wrong direction, which makes perfect sense when you understand they
01:09:57.340
had resolved, don't replace the people who are retiring.
01:10:01.980
You know, we don't even have the money to rehire.
01:10:04.560
So, so you win, you do, I mean, I love when people use the law, somebody who used to practice
01:10:09.560
I just love, cause it's still there for us and you win that.
01:10:12.960
So now is it, is it, is it just total victory or is this just step one?
01:10:21.100
And what they're saying is, and by the way, Megan, one thing I want to stress is we're not
01:10:29.920
It's like, you know, you have a hundred dollars, I have a hundred dollars, Megan, and you steal
01:10:41.160
We just want to, and that's what the defunders are making it seem like that we just want a
01:10:51.280
Cause even what the judge said, you have to have at minimum 730 by June 22nd, I'm sorry,
01:11:02.080
That for us is, I mean, it's scary because that's a whole nother year, for example.
01:11:22.100
It's just a sufficient level for our city, which we actually don't believe is sufficient.
01:11:28.760
But, but we understand the charter and we're just saying, do, do what the charter says.
01:11:37.660
It's so crazy, you guys, that you, you can see the amount of change, the amount of protests,
01:11:41.520
the amount of riots in the street after George Floyd, which I understand.
01:11:45.200
I mean, it was horrific, but you don't see anything after these children, you know, like
01:11:51.400
where, where are all the protests for these three kids, for the little girls, for the
01:11:55.380
little boy who's on what life support right now.
01:11:57.580
And I've heard you saying, Sandra, you'll, you're, if you have to choose, if you had to
01:12:02.980
choose how your child died, was murdered, you, you would, you'd have to choose by a police
01:12:08.940
officer because then at least he'd get some attention.
01:12:13.940
In the egregious, devastating event that that were to happen, right?
01:12:18.120
You want people to remember your child, to rally behind you, you know, to make sure the,
01:12:24.920
the perpetrator is apprehended and, and that's not happening.
01:12:29.480
To remember the anniversary of your child's death.
01:12:32.120
I've heard grandmothers cry, Megan, and say, what about my child?
01:12:38.340
My grandchild, doesn't he deserve for people to come and rally around us, right?
01:12:45.680
And we have, we have vigils, you know, every time a child dies like that, we have vigils
01:12:52.100
and sometimes the vigils go on for days or weeks as a child is in the hospital.
01:12:57.040
And, you know, there'd be a couple dozen people, three dozen people, 50 people, but missing in
01:13:05.960
action is the protest community that attends when a police officer kills someone.
01:13:11.340
And so it's not then you, you, you have to deduce that the important thing for that community
01:13:17.620
is not the loss of life of an African-American.
01:13:25.660
So it's not about the value of the, the one who died.
01:13:31.840
And, and so all black lives don't actually matter to, right?
01:13:40.940
Because if it did, they'd be taking a both and approach, Megan.
01:13:45.600
And they'd be saying, while we reform the police, the system of policing to stop this egregious
01:13:52.120
killing that happens across our country of unarmed black men and women, we also will work with
01:14:01.900
And, and so that we have a sufficient level of police, the ones who actually got into the
01:14:17.600
Because they actually are taking care of the people we care about.
01:14:23.100
So if you, if you make it about how the community is treated.
01:14:29.120
Then it leads to a whole different set of habits and, and, and responses.
01:14:34.420
You start having, coming to a conclusion, um, that's wise.
01:14:40.260
You start saying to the community, hey guys, you can't do that.
01:14:42.800
You got to cooperate with the police and tell, if you know who took, who shot this child,
01:14:48.420
tell the police and stop this foolish, no snitching business.
01:14:54.780
You begin to make a whole, uh, different approach to the whole thing.
01:15:01.400
In June of 2020, the city council announced it would dismantle the police department and
01:15:11.100
And they said, we're going to replace cops with community-based public safety programs.
01:15:17.900
I don't know what it is, a community-based public safety program.
01:15:20.460
I mean, I, my reaction from way over here is I think I'd rather have just a cop with a
01:15:25.580
If somebody was trying to carjack me, I don't know what the community-based public safety
01:15:33.060
Well, first, let me say that if you want community-based public safety, you can look at our neighbors
01:15:43.900
We've engaged with every neighbor who comes in and moves in.
01:15:47.600
You know, sometimes we overlook it when we got too busy or didn't notice.
01:15:56.080
We get neighbors together to deal with a particular problem property.
01:15:59.820
We go over to the house where the problem is occurring.
01:16:09.240
So it's kind of like, hey, guys, can we just be realistic about this?
01:16:15.340
Are you just talking about, you know, 30 guys walking up and down the street who don't
01:16:21.880
Or are you talking about a real deeply integrated plan that's integrated into the neighborhood
01:16:29.140
This is back to your point of it's not either or.
01:16:33.520
But I do have a, so it has to be both and, Megan.
01:16:36.860
And so we would, we do have an office of violence prevention in Minneapolis.
01:16:40.200
And there's a lot of models around the country of getting people from the community who are
01:16:45.660
actually there building relationships and, and knowing who some, a lot of our violence
01:16:57.700
Some of them used to be gang members that works in tandem with policing.
01:17:04.580
And, and recently an armed robber fled to Minneapolis from St. Paul.
01:17:12.580
And our African-American head of the precinct, Charlie Adams, he was there.
01:17:29.640
Charlie, because he's from the neighborhood, he had police.
01:17:34.800
He called for some of the violence interrupters that he knew who were from the neighborhood.
01:17:39.680
And he called the kid's mom, the young man's mom, got his number because of the connections.
01:17:47.840
And he said, ma'am, that's the last thing I want to do.
01:17:52.460
And they were able to, with the police, with some folks from the community, actually talk
01:18:01.700
But the violence prevention folks weren't going to be able to do it by themselves.
01:18:06.300
And the police were able to de-escalate the situation with having some people there.
01:18:25.300
Do you ever think about running for office, one or both of you?
01:18:39.900
We need more practical solutions-based people out there instead of the far extremists.
01:18:47.340
You know, I don't want to listen to the lady in the Lululemon anymore.
01:18:51.260
I want people who are living it and actually trying to solve it out there at the pointy end
01:19:02.060
And Sandra, yeah, I want something more city council.
01:19:05.600
I had to get off the council to do that because both races are simultaneous.
01:19:10.300
Well, how do we get rid of Jacob Fry and get you in there?
01:19:15.620
We're actually, because Jacob is pro both and, we are supporting him.
01:19:28.320
Do you guys have, in all seriousness, do you have any sort of, you know, pamphlet or
01:19:32.800
written materials on how you're doing this that people in other communities could see
01:19:39.220
Yeah, because people have been calling and asking us.
01:19:42.600
And in fact, even in Minneapolis, there are other groups who want to sue the city.
01:19:49.600
Because it seems to be now the only, when you're elected representatives ignore you.
01:19:57.660
It seems as if the only other choice is the law.
01:20:03.780
And so we are, we are working passionately to get sensible, balanced people.
01:20:19.040
Because as you say, they're going to appeal the ruling.
01:20:23.080
And I was just, I was talking to Larry Elder about Cori Bush, this representative out of
01:20:27.600
She's a defund the policer and just came out that she spent $70,000 on her own private
01:20:35.940
But you guys, I'm sure you don't have an extra $70,000 to hire a private security force
01:20:45.360
You know, she's a representative out of Missouri.
01:20:50.100
Three of our city council members did the same thing, Megan.
01:21:04.660
Um, the, the big thing, Megan, is we, um, we're open.
01:21:10.360
I haven't, um, we haven't had the meeting yet, but, um, yeah, people from all around the
01:21:16.920
We have a law firm, Upper Midwest Law Center, and want to give them a shout out.
01:21:24.080
And, um, and so they are talking to other people, but the main thing is that you get together
01:21:33.880
If you're, if your elected officials are not, um, working with you, then you have to find
01:21:39.320
a law firm that will support you and you just move, you know, you just, you just get it
01:21:46.660
And by the way, we've talked about the people who lost lives, businesses, our economy is
01:21:55.880
And, and, and the people who are hurt first are the local black businesses, right?
01:22:04.140
Who can't stay open after the rioting and looting.
01:22:08.040
I mean, they have cried for George Floyd square to be reopened.
01:22:16.840
And again, it's a, it's a, uh, uh, uh, conspiracy of both COVID, but also the violence and knowing
01:22:23.620
that they have a city council that is saying, we don't care if you can't protect your employees
01:22:33.460
And we don't care, we don't care if you have to close your, your business, we don't care.
01:22:40.480
And, and in fact, but de facto, we don't care if your three children have to die.
01:22:49.720
And we, I mean, we're just going down, Megan, on so many fronts.
01:22:54.180
So, so the business community joining in, and we are partnered with the business community,
01:22:58.780
the chamber of commerce, um, joining in and really doing an all out.
01:23:03.580
If you are balanced, you have a balanced approach and you are middle of the road people, because
01:23:08.480
we don't want extremes on the right, nor on the left.
01:23:12.720
And, and Megan, the middle of the road people, we have to find those folks again and join with
01:23:19.280
them so that we save not just our cities, but our entire democracy.
01:23:24.340
And to hold up that middle, that sensible middle.
01:23:28.160
So that people can see that, oh, oh, there is a sense, sensible, sensibility out there.
01:23:41.880
I think we should go for the governor's mansion.
01:23:47.860
This is, it's so wonderful to just have such a bomb of sense dumped on us.
01:23:51.980
You know, it's like, usually I listen to the partisans who say like racial justice,
01:23:55.140
and then they're hurting people in the inner cities.
01:23:57.140
And you're like, well, I kind of want to object, but I don't want to be called mean names.
01:24:00.680
And then, you know, you hear people on the other side saying like Derek Chauvin did nothing
01:24:04.320
And it's like, well, it's just so, it's so nice to hear you guys put it in terms.
01:24:13.600
You got to like, at least start a podcast, do something.
01:24:26.320
We'll say a prayer for that little boy too, still in the hospital and for all of you guys
01:24:37.620
Continuing with our daily release of these podcasts, we're gearing up now.
01:24:42.340
Tomorrow, we've got another show for you and we're going to focus on what's happening in
01:24:47.860
What about these pushes for independence and try to get rid of these oppressive regimes
01:24:56.420
I'd like to understand them better and I'm going to walk you through it.
01:25:00.240
So it's sort of a primer on both of those situations.
01:25:14.300
The Megyn Kelly Show is a Devil May Care media production in collaboration with Red Seat Ventures.