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00:01good evening and welcome to politics nation tonight's lead no end game
00:19tonight the president says he's not ready to make a deal with iran because the terms are
00:26not good enough yet in his view of course trump hasn't shared what those terms are or how other
00:33nations have pledged to back the u.s. in reopening the strait of humus helping to ease the spike in
00:43global oil prices today israel launched a new wave of airstrikes on iran following the u.s. bombardment
00:51of major iranian oil hub this weekend and the pentagon has released the names of six u.s.
00:59service members killed during a mission in iraq the u.s. death toll now at 13 combat related deaths
01:08joining me now is congressman adam smith democrat of washington state and the ranking member on the
01:15house armed services committee yesterday uh donald trump said that iran was ready to make a deal
01:24but that he was not quote because the terms aren't good enough yet and of course he never said what
01:32those terms are other than iran must give up nuclear ambitions he did say that several countries vowed to
01:40help the u.s. reopen the strait of humus but declined to name them after he leaned on the uk
01:47and other
01:48countries to send warships to the strait to protect tankers is there a strategy here that you can
01:56identify congressman well there's no path to achieving that strategy it's hard to figure out
02:02what the strategy is you can sort of cobble it together between all the different comments
02:06but there is no path to achieving what that strategy would be and i mean it's got two basic
02:13parts to it one they want to degrade iran's military capability which is fine and they've been doing it
02:20for the last two and a half weeks now frankly israel's been doing it for longer than that but to
02:25what
02:25level what's an acceptable level of degrading their military capability they have the administration has
02:31not made it clear what that is and the part of the problem leads into the second thing that they're
02:36trying to do is okay so we degrade them we blow up a bunch of missiles we blow up you
02:40know drone
02:40factories a bunch of ships whatever if the iranian regime is still in place and still hostile they are
02:47capable of rebuilding which brings us to the second objective which would be to change that either to
02:53eliminate the regime and have it be replaced with some new group of people in iran who actually want
02:59to stop exporting revolution and terrorism and focus on iran or even if the bad people are still in
03:05charge trump has effectively broken them would be the goal so they wouldn't dare be hostile to u.s
03:11u.s interest going forward there's no evidence that they're making progress towards achieving that
03:16second goal at all however much they may be degrading iran's military capability when this is all over
03:22said and done it seems like you're going to have a hard-line iranian regime with friends in russia
03:28friends in china an ability to rebuild and let us not forget the cost you mentioned the strait of
03:33hormuz this is costing us between a billion and two billion dollars a day the debt's going up we've
03:38lost the lives of 13 service members countless civilians have been killed the global economy has
03:45been disrupted of course we have the bombing of the girls school in iran that is just an enormous
03:50tragedy so the cost of all this is enormous and there's no clear path towards achieving the objectives
03:57that the trump administration will occasionally talk about now our condolences go to the families of the six
04:07u.s service members who were killed this week uh when they are refueling aircraft crashed in iraq while
04:14serving u.s operations against iran or the pentagon says it's still investigating what happened but has ruled out
04:23hostile or friendly fire as the cause of the crash that brings the u.s death toll thus far to
04:3013 service
04:31members and one who died of a medical emergency meanwhile more than 2 000 people have died across
04:39the region so far as the ranking member on house armed services what are your thoughts on the human costs
04:46we've already seen i think they're enormous and i think this is this is a lesson that supposedly we
04:54had learned and look i you know after 9 11 you know after saddam hussein invaded kuwait and everything
05:00we were trying to deal with and all of that in iraq in afghanistan in libya to some degree to
05:05deal with
05:05muammar qaddafi there was this feeling at the end of the cold war that we were the world's sole
05:11remaining superpower we had a massive amount of military might and we could sort of shape the world
05:16we could take care of these bad guys and these bad governments and build something in its place
05:21well what supposedly we learned over the course of the last 25 years is that was a heck of a
05:25lot more
05:26difficult than it looked and it never turned out the way you thought it would it frequently turned
05:29out worse and an enormous cost in lives in money and just the disruption of all of these countries so
05:36trump said during the campaign i've learned that lesson i'm not going to do it and here we are
05:41once again relying on the military on blowing stuff up to think that that's somehow going to
05:47leave something better at the end of it it just doesn't work as simply as it seems and i understand
05:53the impetus i mean iran is a terrible regime doing terrible things if there was some way to simply
05:57remove them and get to a better place i'm not opposed to that but we see the cost and we
06:03also see
06:04the uncertainty you you absorb the cost the lives lost the disruptions and then you get to the end of
06:10it and oh gosh iran's still there and we still have the problem this was not the right approach
06:16in my view to containing the threat from iran now u.s allies in east asia are on alert after
06:23north korea
06:24fired several ballistic missiles towards the sea off its coast during uh joint military exercises between
06:32the u.s and south korea yesterday this comes as the u.s has reportedly started moving air defense
06:39systems out of south korea to serve its military operations in the mid east congressman are we
06:46leaving u.s interests vulnerable elsewhere in service to this war absolutely i'm very glad you asked me that
06:54question i was actually on with some of your colleagues on ms now and one of them asked me this
06:58question i lost track of it and didn't directly answer it yes u.s readiness is being hurt by this
07:04because we are putting all on all a lot of our munitions a lot of our troops a lot of
07:09our forces
07:09are concentrated on this war with iran and obviously that is depleting our munitions but we're also we're
07:16we're cannibalizing our forces in other parts of the world we've also seen the impact on the war in
07:22ukraine russia is getting a lifeline from the boost in oil prices and then president trump foolishly
07:28um you know has removed the sanctions on russian oil at least temporarily in a way that strengthens
07:34russia weakens our hand in stopping them in ukraine and yes in asia both north korea and china have to
07:40be aware of the fact that we are distracted that we are pulling resources out of asia and we are
07:45weaker
07:46there than we otherwise would be and our forces not as forces are not as ready as they should be
07:51again
07:51that is a cost of war you know it's not as simple as apparently secretary hegseth and donald trump
07:57think it is that we just go in we're going to talk tough we're going to put up these video
08:01game like
08:02memes and blow a bunch of stuff up and then we you know flex and we win and the world
08:06is the way we
08:07want it to be you know i just wish people knew that that is a dangerous dangerous way to approach
08:14policy and the use of our military forces well i can say you always answer direct on politics
08:21nation with me so let me ask you this the partial government shutdown over dhs funding hit the one
08:28month mark yesterday and there's no apparent end in sight initially democrats forced the shutdown
08:35but have since offered concessions now republicans are rejecting democrats bills to fund dhs agencies
08:44like tsa while demanding reforms to ice and border patrols uh in their tactics where do things stand
08:52on the hill congressman republicans are playing politics with it right now now they accuse us of
08:59that but remember the reason we did this is because ice is out of control violating the rights of
09:04americans all of this country all over this country no probable cause no due process excessive use
09:10of force unchecked and unaccountable so those reforms are important and we should keep fighting
09:16for them but there's a simple solution to this and that is what you alluded to fund tsa fund the
09:21coast
09:21guard fund the rest of the department of homeland security just don't fund ice if you're not going
09:27to reform it we're not going to vote for those funds but we will readily vote for the funds elsewhere
09:31instead what the republicans want desperate to distract from this disastrous war that donald trump has
09:37driven us into and the worsening economic news that we hear on a daily basis they want to say it's
09:42all
09:42those those terrible democrats playing politics and they won't fund tsa we will fund tsa you put it on
09:49the floor we'll vote for it so right now republicans are playing politics with that you got a simple
09:54solution you know fund the dhs portions that we all agree on um and don't fund ice you know we'll
10:00see if
10:00they change their mind and stop playing politics in the next week or two because we need to fix this
10:04problem tsa agents need to be paid all right thank you congressman adam smith we're going to continue
10:11this conversation with my next guest south carolina congressman jim cliburn who recently announced he is
10:19running for an 18th term congressman cliburn the transportation security administration is one of
10:26the most diverse federal agencies with nearly 30 percent of workers being black as i discussed with
10:33congressman smith this this weekend is the first full paycheck these workers are missing due to the
10:41partial government shutdown new reporting shows that 300 workers have quit and more and more are calling
10:48out take a listen to what the tsa uh union head said
10:56people are not calling out sick or calling out sick the the issue is they simply have no money to
11:04purchase gas uh no money to pay their rent their mortgage child care or the basic necessities
11:11such as food pampers uh formula for the the infants it's it's a very dire situation
11:21what are your thoughts how do we fix it well thank you very much for having me reverend and i
11:28i fix it
11:29if it were me the same way you just heard from congressman adam smith he is absolutely correct
11:37the fact of the matter is this is an issue about ice not anything to do with tsa not anything
11:46to do
11:47with fema nothing to do with the coast guard all of these are wrapped up in this bill that the
11:55republicans are refusing to put on the floor we will vote for them but we are not going to fund
12:04ice to continue killing people to continue masking themselves so no one can identify them
12:13i'm i just left charleston south carolina i grew up in south carolina when law enforcement people
12:21are wearing masks that carries a very significant connotation to me and others with my experiences
12:31and i'm sure you know that what i'm talking about as well as your your viewers and so take off
12:38those
12:39masks and be and conduct yourself like every other law enforcement person and we are satisfied with
12:48that they're refusing to do it simply because they don't want you to know who they are when they
12:56violate your rights knock down your doors drag you out of your automobile throw you down to the
13:03ground stuff on your head and even shoot you they don't want you to know who they are now you've
13:11served in congress for more than 33 years but you recently announced you'll be running for your 18th
13:18term why did you decide to continue to fight how did you come to this decision well as you know
13:26i sat down
13:28during the christmas holidays uh with family members most especially uh my three daughters uh to let them
13:35know uh that um this was something i want them to chime in on we'd always uh have this christmas
13:43uh
13:44holiday a family meeting uh when we look back and look forward and of course uh there was a split
13:51decision upon that two of them right away thought that i should run uh and one of them was a
13:57bit
13:57reticent wanted to see the polling data and wanted to talk to more people uh and that one came back
14:06with the rest telling me uh that support for my running again was very extensive uh in my congressional
14:14district and as i said i just left charleston and it is uh pretty extensive down there as well
14:21the entire peninsula of charleston is in my congressional district and they all support my running again
14:27and one lady said to me we don't need you listening to those people up there we sent you to
14:33washington to
14:34represent us and we want you to stay there until we let you know that we want you to leave
14:39yeah i saw
14:41you quote that in your announcement the uh the south carolina daily gazette points out that you are just
14:47one of seven democrats and five republicans over 80 who've announced they're running for re-election in
14:542026 of the members of 20 of the 24 members of congress of any party who are 80 and older
15:04only
15:04seven have announced their plans to retire after this term and truthfully you could be retired and
15:11spend your days fishing i know you previously previously said you've stayed in office because
15:17there's still work to do what do you say to those who believe it's time to pass the torch to
15:23the next
15:23generation i agree with them and i work very hard every day i as have for the last 11 years
15:32uh i've been
15:33selecting 40 to 50 people uh young people uh that we keep in the years around training uh getting them
15:43up
15:43to stuff uh on uh the state uh and the nation and the politics uh to be uh in fact
15:51several of them are running
15:53for office this year and they are among the group uh that prevailed upon me to stay so i uh
16:02do what i can
16:03uh to prepare young people uh to accept uh the challenge uh when the time comes i don't have any
16:12problem
16:13uh with uh young people i bring as many of them into this process as i possibly can and as
16:20you know
16:21the first weekend of august every year i give out 200 scholarships to high school graduates helping them
16:29pursue uh college educations give every one of them a laptop every one of them a software package
16:35so that they can get a jump start on their college educations to help prepare them for the future
16:40so i'm not staying uh because i don't want to see anybody else come into the process i'm staying because
16:48they are among those who say they would like to see me remain my health is good uh and so
16:55uh i decided
16:57to remain well i was with you in selma alabama for the commemoration last sunday at the church uh
17:06before the march and i could say you probably go up the stairs quicker than most of the young people
17:12there congressman james cliburn thank you for being with us coming up more of the state of the black
17:19economy in the era of trump pennsylvania lieutenant governor austin davis joins us next and as
17:27hollywood's biggest actors take the to the red carpet we're expecting to see both artistry and
17:33activism on stage at tonight's 98th annual academy awards we'll have a preview of what to expect ahead
17:47welcome back to politics nation on ms now what do you call it when three black lieutenant governors
17:56walk in a room i call it progress earlier this week at the black economic alliance's fourth
18:03annual solution summit three black men representing some of the country's top state economies met to
18:11discuss the state of the economy and impacts of trump's economic policies as it as it relates to black
18:20americans joining me now is one of the men who was in the room where it happens and he happens
18:27to be
18:27running for re-election this year pennsylvania lieutenant governor austin davis lieutenant governor in the view
18:35of you and your colleagues what is the current state of black of the black economy under trump and more
18:43importantly how are state lawmakers like you pushing back especially in face of the trump administration's
18:50efforts to dismantle dei and civil rights protections despite what he says president trump
18:57is facing an affordability crisis of massive proportion as i mentioned earlier you're running for re-election
19:04with governor shapiro and you focus heavily on housing affordability talk to me about your goals and how
19:11you intend to achieve them well first thank you so much reverend al it's great to be with you
19:17today you know black the black community and pennsylvanians at large have been struggling
19:24under the trump economy because quite frankly he doesn't believe affordability is a problem but what
19:30we know in pennsylvania and what governor shapiro and i have been laser focused on is delivering real
19:37results for working families to help bring down their costs so that's why we've rolled out our housing
19:44action plan here in pennsylvania the first housing action plan in the commonwealth i'm proud of the
19:51fact that we expanded the working families tax credit here in the commonwealth to give one million
19:57pennsylvanians more money back into their pockets and i'm really proud of the fact that we've been
20:02working to bring down child care costs and the commonwealth you know one of the things that we've
20:08been laser focused on is making sure that we create an economy that works for every single person and
20:14pennsylvania is one of the few states where our economy continues to grow despite the chaos and confusion
20:20that we see coming out of washington dc and from donald trump's white house now you chaired pennsylvania's
20:27advisory council on inclusive procurement which has awarded more than one billion dollars in
20:34government contracts to small and diverse businesses for two consecutive years can you discuss the success
20:41of that program are you worried that it will become a casualty of the trump administration's
20:48efforts to dismantle programs similar to this one yeah governor shapiro and i have been laser focused on
20:55making sure that state government supports small and small diverse businesses here in the commonwealth
21:01and i'm proud to lead the pennsylvania advisory council on inclusive procurement we've been able to
21:07expand our state spend particularly with black and latino businesses by 45 percent in the last two
21:14years i am not concerned about what we are doing being interfered from the trump administration we are
21:21committed uh to making sure that we lift uh marginalized communities up that we're supporting everyone to
21:27create ladders of opportunity to succeed uh and so we're going to continue that commitment uh regardless
21:33of what donald trump and what he uh he does in washington uh and republicans in congress we're going to
21:39continue uh to build pennsylvanians up uh so they can live the american dream and uh right here in our
21:45great
21:45commonwealth before i let you go philadelphia is on the short list to host the 2028 democratic national
21:53convention what could this mean uh not only for philly but for the entire state well look we are certainly
22:02excited that philadelphia is being considered uh i think it's an example of just how important
22:07pennsylvania is uh in our electoral process we have held uh conventions in the past and we have a number
22:14of
22:14big events coming up this year coming to philadelphia from the mlb all-star games uh the world cup uh
22:21i
22:21think philadelphia would be a tremendous place uh to showcase to the world all the rich assets that we
22:27have but also emphasize uh that pennsylvania is the swingiest swing state in america and we decide uh
22:34where elections are won or lost all right lieutenant governor austin davis thank you for being with us
22:40just ahead the tables were turned on trump loyalist laura looma during an appearance in india my
22:48political panel breaks it all down that's next
22:56welcome back to politics nation on ms now now let's turn to the midterms this tuesday in illinois democrats
23:05are fighting over a rare senate opening in a primary that will likely decide the state's next
23:12senate joining me now to discuss this is my political panel mara gillespie a republican strategist and former
23:22congressional advisor uh as well as with us is michael hardaway a democratic strategist and former
23:30communications director for house minority leader hakeem jeffries michael starting with you
23:37tuesday's illinois primary has the potential to put a black woman in the senate three leading democrats of
23:45illinois are competing to win the democratic nomination two of them black women as lieutenant
23:50governor juliana stratton and representative robin kelly are running against each other however some
23:58worried they may split the vote and missed the opportunity to put the senate six black women
24:04in office michael your thoughts looking ahead to tuesday i've worked for dick durbin who currently
24:11holds that seat it's an incredibly important progressive seat and so as we look at the candidates
24:16all of them are good to be perfectly honest with you uh i know robin kelly pretty well and she
24:22is a
24:22talented legislator who's really fought and delivered on black maternal health for years uh juliana
24:29stratton has done a lot around criminal justice reform and others uh and even uh congressman kirsten
24:35amorthy has done a lot as it relates to working people and so i think as we look at this
24:39race all three are
24:41talented options i think robin kelly is exceptionally talented and equipped to serve in that role and obviously
24:47he would make history um as the first black woman i'm sorry the second black woman to represent
24:52illinois uh after carol and mosley ron but i think also stratton would be a good candidate as well
24:58now mara let's take a look at the republican side of tuesday's illinois senate primary six gop
25:05candidates are competing for the republican nomination for the first time since the 90s the state's
25:12democratic senator dick durbin won't be on the ballot giving republicans a window of opportunity
25:19at snatching his seat mara do you think any of the republicans have a chance at this seat
25:26in a reliably blue state especially given trump's unfavorability one year back in office
25:34i know my fellow republicans won't be happy to hear this but no i don't see that being a possibility
25:39right now i think that people running in a cycle where donald trump has really destroyed much of the
25:44conservative principles and policies what he's putting forward isn't in line with conservative
25:49values they don't align with what many republicans in congress went there to achieve for their
25:54constituents so it's hard to run on a platform talking about issues that your constituents care about
26:00when a lot of what the trump administration is doing flies in the face of those objectives
26:05switching gears michael far-right activist laura looma who says she speaks frequently with president
26:13donald trump was publicly challenged while appearing at a conference in new delhi india on saturday
26:21over her past anti-indian posts and remarks take a listen
26:29i think you should do more than just express regret from what i can see you're brazenly racist
26:34and islamophobic and islamophobic and i'm sorry to say that we have atituri deva bhava in this country
26:39where we welcome all but your comments smack of anti-indianism was still islamophobia and even worse racism
26:50luma even apologized for comments somewhat take a listen
26:57and i apologize if my remarks offended people i'm very happy to be able to experience india
27:04myself but i will say i don't have hatred in my heart for india or hindu people i'm an
27:09i'm an advocate for hindus i speak out against the brutality of islam
27:15michael luma is known for anti-muslim rhetoric and for promoting conspiracy theories increasingly
27:23becoming influential online michael your thoughts on this apology considering she only apologized to hindus not
27:32hindus not muslims as india is a multi-religious multi-religious country
27:39it's so shameful first of all the chickens finally came home to roost for her because
27:43she has spent her entire career uh saying racist and islamophobic and just hateful things against a
27:50number of people in a number of groups she's a failed congressional candidate she lost twice in florida
27:55and she hasn't actually done anything except for becoming friends with donald trump that apology was
28:00not a real apology saying that i'm sorry that you feel a certain way is not the same thing as
28:05saying
28:05i'm sorry that i did something and so i think as i looked at that confrontation i don't know how
28:11you
28:11felt but i was happy that someone finally stood up and said to her face what needed to be said
28:16because
28:16she has spent her entire career insulting people and hurling hateful things against uh people who
28:23are muslim and others and so someone finally stood up and i thought that was a good thing
28:28well well you say you don't know what i think but i think you can take a good guess but
28:34mara uh last to
28:36you how are luma's comments likely to play back here at home where anti-indian sentiment has been a part
28:43of
28:43her brand for a while now i don't think it's going to make much of a dent i think someone
28:49like laura
28:50loomer this is what she looks for right she wants these viral moments whether she's you know found
28:55apologizing because she's confronted with something uh it doesn't really matter because for her it still
28:59clicks and when you have these arbitrary activists they get platforms like this they get invited for
29:04speaking engagements like this it's just an opportunity for them to promote themselves further
29:09uh and and really doesn't do much to shed light on the issues at hand and the seriousness of what
29:14she's being you know accused of here and i i think unfortunately so many people in this orbit uh
29:19unfortunately feel as though they don't have any real repercussions to their actions and to their
29:24tweets or their posts uh and in this situation like michael i am glad that she was confronted by it
29:29i'm just not i'm pretty skeptical that it's going to make much of a difference unfortunately
29:32all right michael hardaway and mara gillespie thank you both for being with us coming up black
29:39artistry takes top billing at tonight's oscar awards breaking records and shining the spotlight
29:47on the bright future of black filmmaking
29:55welcome back to politics nation on ms now we're just hours away from the 98th annual
30:02academy awards like many my thoughts are with filmmaker ryan kugler tonight and his genre
30:11bending film sinners up for a record 16 oscar nominations the most ever from a single feature
30:21sinners ratio sinners racial content on screen happened in a year defined by the president's culture wars
30:29in a year defined by the president's culture of the president's culture of the president's culture of the country
30:32and it's not unlikely that we'll see reactions to trump's actions tonight on stage of course all of this is
30:41occurring as trump's media allies continue to buy up assets like the wanna brothers film studio which put out
30:49centers raising concerns that in the future we can expect fewer voices that sound like ryan kugler
30:57and more that echo president trump joining me now is gerald is gary uh gerard hamilton entertainment
31:07journalist for the associated press uh gary nice to have you with us tonight for decades as you know
31:14i've been pushing the hollywood studios to boost diversities and diversity in the front of and behind
31:22the camera and in the c-suites as well we've marched for where these decisions are really made
31:29which is part of why i'm so happy to see centers and this director ryan kugler having this breakthrough
31:34moment tonight with the 16 nominations if you still haven't seen it at home here's a clip
31:44how could it move and sound like snack if it ain't snack i only ever heard stories i ain't never
31:51come
31:51across them myself what stories you heard how hanks work they switch places with the soul of a man
31:58the vampires is different maybe the worst kind the soul gets stuck in the body can't rejoin the
32:07ancestors first to live here with all this hate gary what made this film special this year in your
32:15view oh sir i think it's pretty simple it was just an amazing film right you have an amazing director
32:21and ryan kugler he had amazing acting from michael b jordan you have uh wumi masaku you have of course
32:29the legendary dale roy lindo it was just a phenomenal film and i think what also made it special was
32:34just
32:35that ryan kugler has a way with his directing of connecting with us connect uh connecting with
32:41humanity right um obviously this has been an amazing film but when you look at his other films as well
32:47whether it's fruitville station whether it's black panther the creed series he has a gift of connecting
32:53with us and so with this latest project centers i think it was more of the same he just knows
32:58how to
32:58touch us he can relate to us and again he's such an amazing director now like black panther you had
33:04insiders who didn't think centers would do well because of his mostly black cast and racial content
33:12then as it became a massive hit they focused on how lucrative kugler's deal was overlooking his two
33:19billion dollar box office before that point how how common his deal was for white filmmakers with similar
33:28uh records and and studies continue to show a thirst for diversity at the movie theater in this year's
33:35ucla's diversity report found that films with casts that approached 50 people of color performed the best
33:44across several categories of film goers so why is the industry still hedging its bets on diverse
33:50cast and voices when clearly there's a want for them well i think it's not rocket science right um we
33:58like
33:58to see ourselves on the screen no matter who you are and so i think when we see ourselves we
34:04can relate
34:04better and so therefore we want to watch those projects uh it's no different than when i was a
34:09young kid in the 90s watching martin right there were certain shows that i didn't watch until i was
34:14older like a friends because i didn't see myself reflected on the screen so i did not watch that it's
34:20actually one of the reasons i became an entertainment journalist to make sure that you know diverse stories
34:25were being told so america is a diverse nation we want to see ourselves reflected on the screen and
34:31so i think that study is just showing something that we already know we want to feel like we can
34:36connect with what we're watching tonight's broadcast is in the midst of political turmoil here and at home
34:42and it follows fcc chairs uh chair brendan carr's recent comments that media outlets effectively need to
34:50fall in line with president trump's messaging on the iran war or they risk having their broadcast
34:57licenses revoked the oscars have been used as a platform for protests in the past given everything
35:05do you expect that we'll see any of that tonight from the presenters it's always difficult to tell you
35:11know we don't know what the presenters are actually going to say once they get on stage um it would
35:17not
35:17surprise me if we heard messaging um that spoke to certain political views but i think most importantly
35:24they are there to celebrate their art um while some may believe that actors and entertainers may have
35:32a duty to speak on things that um affect them in their communities not everybody always subscribes to
35:39that so it'll be interesting to see not only what people say tonight but who is speaking on behalf of
35:45their
35:45community or um saying what particular views that they have and how they say it and how they say it
35:51yeah but staying with the hollywood c-suites i mentioned earlier several media companies were already
35:56dropping their diversity mandates as trump came back in that only accelerated after he took office
36:03and now we have the makings of a media conglomerate with the trump aligned ellison family deal to purchase
36:10wana brothers discovery among those assets would of course be the wana brothers film studio which put out
36:18centers do you think the new studio once its sale clears will be less favorable to diverse films out of
36:26alignment with maga or is it just about what makes money well you know i don't want to speak prematurely
36:32because the deal while it is official on paper it still has to go through regulatory review so what i
36:39would
36:39say is that we have to take a wait and see approach because we don't know we do know a
36:44color that
36:44matters in hollywood is green so i think that when things are making money they will continue to get
36:49greenlit and we have to remember centers is a warner brothers property that has done amazing it's set
36:54records and we can even go back a little further to judas and uh the black messiah which also set
37:00records at its particular time which was also warner brothers property and so i think when you have great
37:06scripts when you have great directors that want to be attached to certain projects that they will
37:10continue to be made but in terms of how that affects diversity you know we'll just have to take a
37:14wait
37:15and see approach what other films uh and award uh nominees should be looking out for tonight i mean one
37:21battle after another that's been kind of like the critics choice um and i know we talked a lot about
37:26sinners but you have tiana taylor who is up for best uh supporting actress and so i think it's really
37:31going to come down to between uh sinners and one battle after another and and of course uh of course
37:39you what would be your pick oh that's tough i mean you know do you want to go with the
37:43heart or the head
37:44or or you know give me the heart and give me the head um i really enjoyed sinners i really
37:50loved
37:50sinners i love the message that uh ryan coogler has uh michael b jordan was phenomenal but so was one
37:55battle after another it's hard to choose they were very different films um i would say that the critics
38:01choice for the most part has been one battle after another but the fans choice has been sinners and
38:07so i think it's really going to be a toss-up and that's one of the reasons why i'm so
38:10excited about
38:10tonight all right you gave me the heart and the head and uh now you can leave me the jacket
38:16and the
38:16pocket as much as you've done for our community i grew up learning about you in black history classes
38:21in elementary school so you can have it you know how to get a return ask to come back on
38:26the show
38:26gary gerard amilton thank you very much for being with us up next my final thoughts stay with us
38:49this weekend the pentagon released the names of six u.s service members who died when they are
38:56the refueling plane crashed in iraq earlier this week overall 13 american troops have been killed
39:03since the war with iran began late last month a 14th died on medical issues i pray for each and
39:12every
39:12one of them and their families and urge all americans to remember their names and their faces let them serve
39:19as a reminder that war carries a heavy human cost and that price must always weigh heavily on the minds
39:28and hearts and minds of elected leaders when they make the heavy decision to send our best and brightest
39:37into harm's way that does it for me thanks for watching i'll see you back here next weekend at
39:435 p.m eastern the weekend prime time starts right here on ms now at the top of the hour
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