- 13 hours ago
Politicsnation With Al Sharpton - Season 15 - Episode 08 Emgsub
Category
š„
Short filmTranscript
00:02Good evening and welcome to Politics Nation, tonight's lead, Living History.
00:19On the first night of Black History Month, America finds itself embroiled in a new struggle
00:27to preserve and protect our basic civil rights. In Minnesota and across the nation, we've seen
00:34scenes reminiscent of the 1960s as thousands of Americans turn out for mass demonstrations
00:42and sit-ins to protest the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. Meantime, in Georgia,
00:49our democracy itself is under threat after the FBI seized ballots and voter data from
00:56the 2020 election, prompting new concerns about what this president might do ahead of the upcoming
01:04midterm elections. As new special election results tonight suggest Trump and the Republicans
01:11could be facing a massive rebuke from voters who fear the country is headed in an increasingly
01:18dark and dangerous direction. Let's begin in Minnesota, where the Trump administration has
01:25also demanded the state's voter rolls amidst their surge in immigration enforcement in Minneapolis.
01:34Joining me now is Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon. Secretary Simon, thank you for joining us.
01:42After federal immigration agents shot and killed an American citizen in Minneapolis for the second time
01:51this month, Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a letter to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz that outlined what she
01:59described as three simple steps to, quote, bring back law and order, end quote, end quote, end the chaos in
02:08Minnesota.
02:09Her final step, however, seemed to have little to do with immigration or the state's fraud scandals,
02:17as the DOJ has requested access to Minnesota's voter rolls. Now, Secretary, I know you said that
02:25you will not hand over voter data to the Trump administration, but can you elaborate on your
02:31position and why do you think the White House is pressing for this now and tying it to immigration
02:38enforcement? I have to say, Reverend Al, it's a mystery and it's really, really troubling to many people.
02:46Keep in mind, this letter from Attorney General Bondi came just hours after the second person,
02:51the second American citizen, was gunned down by federal agents within as many weeks. Why this was
02:57tied to the chaos in Minnesota that came with the federal agents, I don't know. It doesn't have
03:03anything certainly directly to do with immigration or boots on the ground or levels of force or anything
03:09like that. And I worry that it's tied to something bigger. I worry that it's tied to an overall attempt
03:15to denigrate people's confidence in our election system in the run up to 2026. We know that in
03:22Minnesota and most of the rest of the country, our elections are fair and accurate and honest and
03:27secure. We obey and comply with federal law. But why this was connected so soon to that issue,
03:34I'm not sure I can tell you. Now, have you been in contact with officials from Georgia and other
03:40secretaries of state about this and its implications for the midterms? Is there a potential plan to
03:49respond or combat any possibility of election interference?
03:53Yes. In fact, just this past week, I was with colleagues at a national conference of secretaries
03:58of state, bipartisan. We talked about this. And I have to tell you that at this point,
04:04it would be irresponsible of us as secretaries of state not to plan for the possibility of some
04:11federal interference, direct or indirect. It's not necessarily prediction. It's a precaution. So what
04:16have we done already? We have actively worked with other states. We have actively worked with federal
04:21partners and, of course, within Minnesota to game out or plan these potential scenarios of federal
04:28interference. I hope they don't happen. I'm not ready at this point to predict it will happen,
04:33but it would be irresponsible, just like we plan for a weather event or a power outage or a bomb
04:38threat.
04:38We have to plan for this. It's sad in 2026 that this is on the list of things we have
04:43to plan for,
04:44but we have to be realistic and we have to be safe.
04:46Now, five-year-old Liam Ramos and his father, Adrian, are back in Minneapolis after being
04:54released from a Texas detention facility where they were held for over a week. Texas Democratic
05:01Congressman Julian Castro escorted them back home to the suburbs after they were taken to Texas by
05:14immigration agents. Now, meanwhile, on Saturday, a Minnesota federal judge declined to order a halt to
05:21the immigration enforcement crackdown in Minneapolis, despite the lawsuit by state officials outlining the
05:29federal agents' widespread civil rights abuses. However, Minneapolis residents continue to organize and resist this
05:38weekend, including a sit-in in at least 19 target stores to demand action against immigration enforcement.
05:46Secretary, from your point of view, what's the mood in your state right now?
05:51Well, it continues to be grim and heavy. However, I am so proud of us. The way that we have
05:59stood up,
06:00not just that we've stood up, but the way we have. Overwhelmingly nonviolent. Huge shows of force in below-zero
06:06temperatures.
06:06And we have shown a way out of this for a lot of communities that may be facing this in
06:12the coming
06:12months, and I have to say years, which is massive but peaceful protest and making sure we have folks
06:19out there with cell phones. I mean, recording, bearing witness, showing the rest of the world what's going
06:25on, showing people that this isn't about some list of the worst of the worst. If it were only that,
06:30it would have massive support. But it's not that. It's a random, cruel dragnet with seemingly out-of-control tactics
06:38way too often. And I think people are using their ears, their eyes, and their common sense all over the
06:43country, and they're
06:44arriving that same conclusion. So we're still bracing. We're still under this sort of onslaught. But I think the people
06:51of
06:51Minnesota have really shown the way through. You do it in a peaceful way. You do it in a massive
06:56outpouring. And that's what
06:57attracts the hearts and minds of Americans. Now, Trump announced on his social media on Saturday that he has instructed
07:06the DHS to not
07:08intervene in protests occurring in cities led by Democrats, unless local authorities ask for federal help. However, in the same
07:18post, he
07:19also says that he has instructed immigration enforcement to, quote, be very forceful while protecting government
07:28property. He even threatened using the military on protesters, saying federal officers would be, quote, extremely powerful and
07:37tough, end of quote. Now, this language seemingly contradicts de-escalation efforts. What should the public be watching
07:45for in the weeks to come? They should be watching for overreaction and overkill. And that's what we've seen so
07:53far. And what I
07:54think would be really refreshing and a way to not just talk about, but to show that there's de-escalation
08:00is to show some
08:01restraint, to not turn things up to the highest level of volume and to the most extreme tactics right away.
08:08That's what our law
08:10enforcement does within the state. That's what police are trained to do. And that's what these federal
08:16personnel should be doing as well. It would be more productive for everybody if they would show some
08:22restraint, if we could see people from Washington not labeling everyday moms and dads with whistles and cell
08:30phones as domestic terrorists or rioters or agitators or the like. These are people who are trying to bear
08:36witness. They're trying to make sure that people are conducting themselves the way they should from the
08:41federal level. That's what's happening. But the words from up on high mischaracterizing the situation
08:47and the overkill tactics help no one. So we'd like to see action in that sense. Let's make sure that
08:54force
08:54is a last resort, not a first resort. All right, Secretary of State Steve Simon of Minnesota, thank you for
09:02being
09:02with us. Let's turn now to Georgia. Congresswoman Nakeema Williams, a Democrat. Thank you for being
09:10with us here tonight, Congresswoman. We have a lot to talk about, but I have to start with the partial
09:21government shutdown now underway. House Speaker Johnson is saying today he expects the resolution to end the
09:28shutdown will pass by Tuesday. Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries was on this program last night saying
09:36Democrats will not be helping him pass that measure. What should we be expecting when Congress returns to
09:44work tomorrow? So I think what you heard from my future speaker, Leader Hakeem Jeffries, is absolutely
09:51correct. House Democrats will not stand by and supply votes for a DHS funding bill, Reverend Al, where we are
09:58seeing citizens, human beings, regardless of their citizenship, being gunned down and killed in the streets of our
10:05country. We're seeing children being detained. We're seeing our communities being terrorized. And House Democrats stand on the
10:13side of the American people who are demanding accountability from DHS and ICE. And so as long as this bill
10:21stands as it is, I am a
10:23strong no vote as well as a House Democratic leadership. And we're not going to supply the votes for them
10:28to continue to terrorize our
10:30communities. This means that there might be a Republican force, partial government shutdown because they refuse to even negotiate and
10:39make any
10:40conditions relevant to keeping our communities safe. ICE is making our communities less safe, Reverend Al, and the entire country
10:48is seeing this. You can't do this in our
10:50face, play in our face, play in our face and tell us we're not seeing what so many of us
10:54are witnessing. And so enough is enough.
10:57Now, let's talk about the ballots that were seized by Trump's FBI in Fulton County, Georgia last week. We don't
11:04know where they are or what the
11:06administration intends to do with them. We also don't know why Trump's director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbitt, was there.
11:16The chairman of
11:17County Board of Commissioners was on the program last night. I want to play for you why he thinks this
11:24is happening right now.
11:28I think this is a distraction. I think it's intimidation. I think it's serving to discourage people from voting, even
11:35our
11:36co-workers. That's why I went there to make sure that our workers were safe because you recall the two
11:40women that Rudy Giuliani
11:44intimidated. They won a judgment against him. So that has a chilling effect. And I think that's what this is
11:50all about. If you really peel it
11:51back and get to the bottom of what they're after, it's not about 2020 anymore. It's about 2026 and 2028.
12:00What are your thoughts, Congresswoman? You represent part of Fulton County.
12:06Absolutely. I vote here in Fulton County, Reverend Al, and I saw all of this playing out in the 2020
12:11election. And the first thing we need to make clear is Donald Trump, he lost this election and it's been
12:17adjudicated. And the judicial process has told us 63 times what we all know to be true, that Donald Trump
12:24lost
12:24the 2020 election. So yeah, he still has hurt feelings and he's still dealing with this, but we need to
12:30be
12:30looking forward. What are they going to do with these ballots? We no longer maintain the control of custody of
12:36these ballots. And these are original documents. So we saw in Minnesota where they told them if they just
12:42turn over the documents from 2020, then they might let up on what is happening with ICE. This is our
12:48American government terrorizing a county municipality. And so going into our county, an FBI raid, a criminal
12:57indictment, like coming in, they couldn't get a judge here in Georgia. So they found a judge in Missouri
13:04to sign the warrant for them to come in. I've led an FBI oversight letter in my congressional authority
13:11asking questions, demanding answers. What are they trying to answer by taking these documents? Where
13:18did they take them? Where would they end up? Where are you going to do with this information? This is
13:22highly sensitive information. And as we are looking at early voting starting in our midterm elections
13:27right here in Fulton County in April, Reverend Al, this is right around the corner. What is happening
13:33with this very delicate elections information that they have stolen from our Fulton County Board of
13:40Elections? Now, the commissioner also told us yesterday that leading up to the Fulton County
13:46raid, he's heard rumors that arrests of Georgia officials could be coming. Are you concerned Trump may
13:54have more in store for Georgia? And how are lawmakers and public officials preparing for that possibility?
14:02Reverend Al, I don't think we can say that anything is not possible under this administration.
14:08Donald Trump has shown us that he will do whatever it is to try and get his way. As elected
14:12officials,
14:13we need to make sure that we are standing strong and finding a way to get in the way to
14:18protect our
14:18democracy, protect our elections, and stand up for the American people. Reverend Al, if he is sending a
14:25warrant to my home, you will be hearing from me because I'm not standing down in the face of this
14:31man who is trying to terrorize our communities, trying to steal our elections, refusing to stand up
14:37for what he saw. He lost this election, Reverend Al. So if you hear about an election warrant sent to
14:42my
14:42house, I'll be waiting for you to come and stand with me, Reverend Al, because I'm not standing down to
14:46this man. Now, if Trump is trying to resurrect the big lie going into the midterms, it's probably
14:53because he senses accountability is coming. In Texas today, Democrats are celebrating a special election
15:01shocker, a nearly 15-point victory in a state senate district that went for Trump by 17 points
15:10in 2024. And by the way, the Republican candidate outspent the victorious Democrat by nearly 10 to
15:19one, according to data compiled by Transparency USA. How do you explain that? I mean, Americans are
15:27paying attention. They know that they were lied to during the 2024 election. Donald Trump said that he
15:33was going to lower our costs and make sure that our economy was back on track. And he's done the
15:38exact
15:38opposite. Our costs have raised. We've seen when we go in the grocery store, the prices are higher.
15:44Look at our health care costs. Here in my county, Fulton County alone, people have seen their health
15:49care premiums quadruple because of Donald Trump and his Republican Party. Americans have had enough.
15:55They're standing up. They're letting their voice be heard at the ballot box. That 20-point swing in
16:01Texas. Sounds like a Senator Jasmine Crockett to me, Reverend Al.
16:06Now, today, I'm out of time, but I have to ask you this. Today's the first day of Black History
16:12Month
16:132026, at a time when around the country, Trump and some of the governors have tried to take away
16:20Black history out of the schools, out of being recognized on national parks on certain holidays.
16:27Uh, you sit in a historic seat as one who has, uh, now the hold of that baton, the mantle
16:35on your
16:36shoulders. How do you see Black History Month 2026? And how should we be observing it?
16:42Black History Month 2026 for me, Reverend Al, just like we just came off of Martin Luther King Day
16:47and sitting here in Atlanta, the birthplace of Dr. King in the seat held by Congressman Lewis.
16:52Congressman Lewis told us that our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, or a month,
16:58but it's the struggle of a lifetime. And each generation has an obligation to do our part.
17:03This Black History Month, we need to all be renewed in doing our part, Reverend Al,
17:08because our struggle is the struggle of a lifetime.
17:11I love it. We don't need to just read Black history. We need to continue making some.
17:16That's right.
17:16Thank you for being with us. Still ahead, we're in the middle of a partial government shutdown.
17:24Maryland Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester will join us with the latest on when the government will reopen
17:30and where things stand for demands for reform to ICE and to DHS. And later, preserving and protecting
17:41black history under Trump 2.0, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Eugene Robinson joins us later on Politics Nation.
17:59Welcome back to Politics Nation.
18:02Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson says a vote to end the partial government shutdown
18:07could take until Tuesday. Last night, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said
18:14on this show that the speaker should not expect any Democratic support as this caucus demands
18:21significant reforms for ICE and the Department of Homeland Security.
18:29In terms of the legislation that's going to be in front of the House on Monday, we need a full
18:34and complete debate. And what I've made clear to House Republicans is that they cannot simply
18:41move forward with legislation taking a my way or the highway approach in the absence of House
18:47Democrats convening, which we're going to do tomorrow, and having a discussion about the appropriate
18:52way forward.
18:54Joining me now, U.S. Senator Lisa Blunt, Rochester Democrat of Delaware. Thank you for being with
19:01us, Senator. What's your view from the Senate on where things stand?
19:11Well, Reverend Al, as you shared, we are now in a partial government shutdown. And from the Senate's
19:20perspective, we just voted on Friday. And really what was put before us, different from the House,
19:28where in the House they had the opportunity to vote on five funding bills that will support the hard
19:34work that we have done for our constituents throughout this past deliberations for our budget,
19:40and also separating out the Department of Homeland Security's bill so that we could vote separately on
19:47that. In the Senate, we did not get that option. And so for us, we had our vote. It now
19:54goes to the
19:55House. And you've heard what our leader, Hakeem Jeffries, has said that for all of us as Democrats,
20:02whether you are in the House or whether you are in the Senate, we are united that ICE is broken.
20:08We are united that there has to be a sense of urgency in terms of real reforms and that there's
20:17no time to waste. And we are also united in the fact that there's a real trust deficit with our
20:24Republican colleagues. I mean, the reality is we saw this during the health care fight.
20:29They said, we want to fix it. We'll work with you. And here we are today in the midst of
20:36a new year
20:37with no real fixes to health care. And so, again, I think what you will see in the next week,
20:44again, is a real deliberate conversation about what could those and what should those reforms look like.
20:51And again, as Democrats, we feel this is unconscionable that you would have secret
20:57roaring police in this country and that you would see a little boy like Liam. I can't get I can't
21:04get
21:04this five year old's face out of my mind. A little boy with a rabbit hat and a backpack being
21:11taken away
21:12from his state to a detention facility or an older gentleman that I saw being whisked out of his house
21:20in Chicago with his shirt open in the freezing cold. A ICU nurse from for the VA being shot down,
21:32as well as a mother of three. Are these individuals, are these the ones that are making us less safe
21:40as
21:40a country? In this moment, it is ice that's making us less safe as a country. I want to get
21:46to a five
21:47year old Liam in a minute. But I want to ask you this. The Senate approved a measure to fund
21:52DHS for two weeks,
21:55giving Congress time to negotiate on ice restrictions. Leader Jeffries laid out some of those proposed
22:02restrictions last night on the show, unmasking ice agents, mandatory body cameras, mandatory judicial warrants
22:10before ice agents can detain people. As you look at this two week negotiating period, what are the most
22:17important reforms Democrats should pursue? And how do you make sure that your time isn't wasted without
22:25any significant concessions from from Republicans? I think Leader Jeffries, you know, hit on many of the
22:34major points. And again, we have a a real unity on those kinds of things that, you know, right now
22:42what we're seeing
22:42are these folks that are not identified. You don't even know who they are. As they're coming up to they
22:48might not even be
22:49ice the way they are doing this operation. So making sure that there are real warrants and that they're not
22:56just going
22:56into people's homes and bringing them out. That's important. You know, again, we talked about some of the other
23:04kinds of things that we'd like to see. For example, a standard basic standards and law, you know, for law
23:12enforcement
23:12that we see in state and local levels, there are standards and codes of conduct. They're not applying by these.
23:20These kinds of things are just basic. And again, as I said, warrants, judicial warrants versus just having
23:28some administrative warrant. There are some these are foundational things. I'm even concerned about the
23:33surveillance nature of what they're doing to Americans. The fact that they're using meta glasses and
23:39recording us and then using that information afterwards to put us on lists. That's that is that's that's not the
23:48country that we're supposed to be. And, you know, when you tie it to what is coming in the elections,
23:56that all of these pieces are fitting together. And it's incumbent upon us, not just in the House and
24:02the Senate, but the people. And that's why seeing what is happening across this country where people
24:07are rising up and saying enough is enough. That's the thing. That's the pressure that I think our
24:12Republican colleagues really need to make these common sense reforms. And let me just say one other
24:17thing. This is not the first time in our history where we have taken a look at an agency and
24:22said,
24:23this is not meeting the mission. You could look at the Department of Justice during Watergate.
24:29You could look at this Department of Homeland Security. This is after the result of 9-11.
24:35And so, again, this agency is broken. It needs to be ripped down to the studs and start all over
24:42again
24:42to make sure that we really are doing what is in the best interest of this country and our safety.
24:50Let me pivot for a moment to the Epstein files and what the Justice Department says was the final batch
24:56to be released this past Friday, though it's still not everything the DOJ promised more than a month
25:04after a congressional deadline. Tonight, many members of Congress are not happy with what they consider
25:11to be a lack of transparency from DOJ calling to see files in full and without heavy redactions.
25:21Senator, if this is the final word from the administration on Epstein,
25:26how do Democrats make sure this story doesn't go away?
25:31Well, you know, first of all, let's start with the victims. This process and how they have
25:38operated. Now, mind you, they said this president said they were going to release them
25:44has just caused more damage and trauma to probably so many of the individuals,
25:50the survivors who have who have made it through this. So that's number one, to keep them top of mind.
25:57Number two, you know, the reality is for us, our whole goal as Democrats is about accountability.
26:05We've seen with this president that he is used to not being held accountable. And so I can tell you
26:13that we will not let up. We will not let up on pushing for transparency, on pushing for justice for
26:21those individuals who have gone through all of this. And you will see the drumbeat will continue.
26:27And it will continue all the way into the election.
26:30Staying with that, Trump's announced his pick to replace Fed Chair Jerome Powell in May,
26:37former Fed Governor Kevin Walsh, whose name popped up in the last batch of Epstein files.
26:44There's no evidence of any wrongdoing. But Walsh's father-in-law is a longtime Trump ally and
26:52Megadona, who's pushed the president on taking over Greenland. All of this considered, how much
26:59scrutiny can Walsh expect to face from Senate Democrats?
27:05Well, you know, I serve on the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, and he will have to
27:13come before our committee during the nomination process. We have not seen any paperwork or anything
27:20like that. But what I can say is the Federal Reserve Board is critical to not only our economy,
27:27but to the global economy. And what this administration has done by way of really politicizing
27:36these organizations and trying to claw back the independence of organizations like this
27:43really will have an impact on what we say in these hearings and how we actually have this process.
27:52You know, you look at how the president has gone after Jerome Powell, after Lisa Cook, who also a
27:59Federal Reserve Board member. And we know that the role of the Federal Reserve Board is really about
28:06making sure that we have low unemployment, make sure that we have interest rates at a place that
28:13makes sure that we have a strong economy. And so we on the committee, the Democrats on the committee,
28:19as well as our whole caucus, will be looking at this because, again, it has major implications
28:25for not only this country, but for the world.
28:29All right. I'm out of time. I'm going to have to leave it there. Thank you for being with us,
28:34Senator Lisa.
28:35Yes, what do you remember? Reverend Al, just remember LBR from Delaware.
28:41And as we celebrate Black History Month, I just want to make sure everybody also recognizes there was a time
28:47when they didn't even teach it. They didn't teach it to us in school, but we made sure, whether it's
28:52community
28:52centers, churches, wherever, even when people tried to erase us, we stayed strong and we kept the drumbeat going.
28:59And so I want to also end by saying happy Black History Month and stay strong.
29:03And thank you, LBR from Rochester, for reminding us about Black History again, as I open the show with that.
29:16Thank you for being with us. Just ahead, rising up for our heritage as the administration
29:22takes a literal crowbar to Black History. We'll be right back.
29:31A house divided against itself cannot stand. Abraham Lincoln was paraphrasing the Bible
29:39when he uttered those words while running for Senate in 1858. They continue to ring true as our nation
29:48stands at a crossroads at the start of Black History Month 2026. Since returning to office,
29:56for his second term a year ago, President Trump has torn open a rupture in our nation between what he
30:05and his supporters believe they can do under the guise of law and order and what many Americans believe
30:13is morally right. He has divided our country with mass deportations, with his dismantling of civil rights
30:21infrastructure that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others fought so hard to build. And with his
30:28undermining of confidence in our elections, the one institution that makes all of our other rights
30:35possible. All of this is shocking and upsetting, but none of it is new. They represent a continuation,
30:44an escalation of the internal battle that has raged in this country from the very beginning.
30:51That's why it's no surprise that while Trump has tried to divide our country, he has also sought to
30:58erase Black history by banning it from high school textbooks, by removing it from government websites,
31:05by literally taking a crowbar to a slavery exhibit at the president's house in Philadelphia just over a week ago.
31:13Trump fears Black history because it represents the road map to a more perfect union for everyone.
31:21The America we were promised by the founders that has not yet been fully realized. A country where all
31:29men are created equal and endowed by their creator with unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
31:37happiness. So many of us dream of that nation. Unfortunately, many others fear it. If we ever
31:45want to get there, we all need to rise up and protect our Black history, no matter the cost. We'll
31:52be right back.
31:57Welcome back to Politics Nation on MSNOW. The Bible says there's nothing new under the sun.
32:05And as President Trump plunges our country into a new civil rights crisis with his mass deportation,
32:13our long history of struggle could help light the way forward. Joining me now, Pulitzer Prize-winning
32:20journalist and MSNOW political analyst Eugene Robinson. His brand new book, Freedom Lost, Freedom Won,
32:28A Personal History of America, comes out this Tuesday. Eugene, we're going to get to the core of
32:35your book in a minute, but the themes of it are intensely relevant to what's happening in the
32:41country right now. Martin Luther King once said, the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends
32:47toward justice. But we sometimes forget there are peaks and valleys along the journey. With that in mind,
32:54how do you frame what's happening right now in our larger historical narrative about the country?
33:01It's a valley. Good evening, Rev. It is. This is one of those moments. Again and again and again,
33:11we have seen these moments when African Americans and other marginalized groups fight and struggle and
33:21often die to win a greater measure of the freedom and opportunity that America promises. And then it is
33:34taken away. It is curtailed. It is pushed back. And the struggle has to begin anew and has to be
33:46reinforced. And it's time for another push. And we're definitely in one of those moments. I mean,
33:55I do not think it is an accident that that we see the election of the first black president of
34:03the
34:03United States, Barack Obama, followed immediately by the election of Donald Trump and the rise of this
34:10this this this mega coalition that wants to take us back to a past when when the country did not
34:20celebrate
34:21its diversity, when the when the country did not offer that freedom and opportunity to as many people
34:29as as as as it should. Now, today is the start of Black History Month. Earlier, we were discussing how
34:37Trump
34:38has literally taken a crowbar to slavery exhibits and has eroded the civil liberties black people
34:45have fought for for decades. Talk about the importance of protecting and preserving black history
34:53from Trump. What can the average American do? Well, first of all, this will not succeed. This attempt to erase
35:02black history, black history will not succeed because the history is the history. And and in fact, over
35:11decades, a lot of this history was was not really known. A lot of it had to be rediscovered. But
35:18we know it
35:19now and we we have recovered it. And it will it will live on whether or not this administration does
35:29ridiculous things like taking down and taking down a sign about slavery at at the presidential center,
35:35which is which is just absurd as if it didn't happen. It it happened. We know it happened. And and
35:43it's also so
35:46counterproductive. It's ridiculous because African-American history is American history, period. This country would not
35:55be the same country without the presence and the contributions and and and and the and the and the
36:03work and the and the brains and the and without black Americans. It simply would not be the same country.
36:12It's one thick strand of the braided history of this of this nation. And and so to to say you're
36:23going to erase black
36:24history is is really to say that you're not going to know American history and that that cannot that cannot
36:35succeed,
36:35cannot be allowed to succeed. And I don't think it will be allowed to succeed.
36:39As a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist yourself, you've tried to help us understand our democracy
36:47through the written words journalist and journalism is now under threat, evidenced by the arrest of
36:54journalists like Don Lemon in Georgia Fort and the raid on the home of a Washington Post reporter.
37:02What are your thoughts on this? Well, I've been a journalist my entire adult life.
37:07And and I've never seen this. I've never seen an attack on not just on reporters. Nixon had his enemies
37:19list
37:19and he hated the press. And a lot of presidents have not liked reporters in general or specific reporters.
37:28But there hasn't been a president, certainly in my lifetime, who has tried to attack journalism, the act of journalism.
37:39Don Lemon was covering a protest. Don Lemon and and and Ms. Fort were covering a protest. That's what we
37:49do.
37:49That's why they were in that church. And the notion that you can be arrested for that is a direct
37:56assault on on the First Amendment.
38:00You know, it was Thomas Jefferson who said, you know, given a choice of government without newspapers or newspapers without
38:08the government,
38:09I would choose the latter because he knew how important it is. The public's right to know what is what
38:18is happening,
38:18what is going on, especially what its government is doing, is supreme. And that's why it's protected in the First
38:24Amendment.
38:26And this was, I think, designed to have a chilling effect on journalists. And it cannot be allowed to.
38:32I need to ask you this, Eugene. Your latest book, Freedom Lost, Freedom One, is intensely personal,
38:39focusing on America's racial history through the lens of your own family history, starting with your great
38:47grandfather's freedom from enslavement and threading its way to your story today. Why did you write this
38:55now? And what do you want readers to take away from it? And I wrote this book, I grew up
39:03in the house
39:03that my great grandfather built. And he was a sort of Reconstruction era success story in South Carolina.
39:11And so he was a prominent Republican Party official. And, you know, he gave speeches, he had letters,
39:20financial documents and everything. And he was a pack rat. He kept everything in the house. So I had
39:24this unusually detailed paper trail about my family. And then his father, the father of the man you see
39:34on the screen, was named Henry Fordham. And he, my great-great-grandfather, in Charleston, South Carolina,
39:45was enslaved, was sold to a plantation owner in 1829, was sold again to a businessman in 1848,
39:52and managed to buy his own freedom in 1851, before the Civil War. And because of this circumstance,
40:03I realized that I had a sort of long paper trail that many African Americans don't have,
40:13because we simply weren't counted. We weren't accounted for. But some free African Americans were.
40:23And so I always had this material. Why did I do it now? Because of that cycle we were talking
40:32about. Because
40:33we are in one of those moments when progress, there's an attempt to reverse progress that had been made.
40:42And I realized, looking back over all this material, that that had happened again and again and again,
40:48most famously, Reconstruction and then Jim Crow. But there were other examples of when it happened before.
40:56And I thought that that whole history then became relevant to what's happening right now.
41:03It is really very important. I know I found my great-grandfather was a slave in Edgefield, South Carolina.
41:10Eugene Robinson, thank you for being with us. The book, Freedom Lost, Freedom to One,
41:16A Personal History of America, available everywhere books are sold, starting Tuesday. We'll be right back.
41:29That does it for me. Thanks for watching. I'll see you back here next weekend at 5 p.m.
41:34Eastern. The weekend primetime starts after a short break.
Comments