Best Of Full Interview: Tezlyn Figaro Talks Kamala’s Missteps, Celebrity Roles In Campaigns, ‘Push The Line’ Movement + More

Summary

Detailed Summary of The Breakfast Club Episode: “Best Of Full Interview: Tezlyn Figaro Talks Kamala’s Missteps, Celebrity Roles In Campaigns, ‘Push The Line’ Movement + More”

Release Date: January 3, 2025
Host: The Breakfast Club with DJ Envy and Charlamagne Tha God
Guest: Teslin Figaro

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Introduction

In this episode of The Breakfast Club, hosts DJ Envy and Charlamagne Tha God engage in a candid and in-depth discussion with political commentator Teslin Figaro. The conversation delves into the intricacies of Kamala Harris’s campaign strategies, the role of celebrities in political movements, the critical missteps that led to electoral outcomes, and the importance of grassroots organizing through initiatives like the “Push The Line” movement.

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Analyzing Kamala Harris’s Campaign Missteps

The conversation kicks off with a critical analysis of Vice President Kamala Harris's performance in the presidential election. Charlamagne Tha God expresses skepticism about Harris’s chances from the outset.

Charlamagne Tha God [02:47]: “No, right out the gate. No, no, no... America was not going to vote for a woman of color, period.”

Charlamagne argues that Kamala Harris’s identity as a Black woman may have subconsciously influenced voter preferences against her candidacy. He further critiques the decision-making within the Democratic Party, suggesting that the team should have considered alternative candidates to better galvanize their base.

Charlamagne Tha God [03:57]: “This was when it came down to saying, they didn't give it to Hillary Clinton. Why would they give it to Harris?"

Teslin Figaro counters by highlighting the pivotal role of Black women in securing Democratic victories in past elections, emphasizing that Harris’s candidacy was essential for mobilizing Black voters.

Teslin Figaro [04:44]: “I think that only happens because she's a black woman.”

Despite acknowledging some positives, Charlamagne maintains that the overall strategy was flawed, particularly in engaging Latino communities and addressing internal divisions. He emphasizes that the campaign failed to build a cohesive coalition that effectively represented and mobilized diverse voter groups.

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The Role of Celebrities in Political Campaigns

A significant portion of the discussion centers around the utilization of celebrities in political campaigns and their effectiveness in driving voter engagement.

Charlamagne Tha God [08:35]: “We need our entertainers. But when you have a hundred days and you're spending more on entertainment setups and not on the ground...”

Charlamagne criticizes the Democratic campaign's approach to leveraging celebrity influence without integrating it into a sustained grassroots effort. He contrasts this with figures like Killer Mike, who seamlessly blend entertainment with active community organizing.

Charlamagne Tha God [13:14]: “He made himself available. And you think that's not important when an organizer who literally has him and Tip has literally put mayors in office.”

Teslin Figaro expands on the idea, advocating for entertainers to collaborate more closely with organizers to maintain year-round momentum rather than sporadic bursts of activity tied to election cycles.

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Mismanagement of Campaign Funds

The discussion shifts to the logistical and financial aspects of the campaign, with a focus on how funds were allocated and the implications of such decisions.

Charlamagne Tha God [08:35]: “When you're giving organizations like that $150,000 and telling them we'll make it do what it do, that's a problem.”

Charlamagne argues that significant sums were diverted towards entertainment and advertising rather than directly supporting grassroots organizations that could have a more tangible impact on voter turnout. He contends that this misallocation hindered effective community engagement.

Teslin Figaro echoes these sentiments, pointing out the last-minute disbursement of funds which left grassroots organizations without adequate support during critical periods.

Teslin Figaro [07:27]: “They literally shitted on organizations. Organizations got $75,000, a hundred thousand dollars...”

This mismanagement, according to Charlamagne, contributed to the erosion of trust among Black voters who felt their support was taken for granted without corresponding investment in their communities.

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The Necessity of Year-Round Organizing

A recurring theme throughout the episode is the importance of sustained, year-round organizing efforts to build a resilient political base.

Charlamagne Tha God [35:33]: “We need year-round organizing and instead, it was all about the last 100 days.”

Charlamagne emphasizes that effective political movements require continuous engagement and support beyond the immediate pre-election period. He criticizes the Democratic Party for prioritizing short-term gains over long-term community empowerment.

Teslin Figaro reinforces this by highlighting the failures of the current campaign to maintain consistent communication and support with key voter bases.

Teslin Figaro [49:12]: “And you inspect streets, they're never getting the money.”

Together, the hosts advocate for the “Push The Line” movement, which aims to train and mobilize community organizers to sustain political activism throughout the year.

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Failures in Campaign Messaging

The episode wraps up with a critique of the campaign's messaging strategy, particularly its focus areas and how they resonated with voters.

Charlamagne Tha God [27:07]: “They didn't talk about the economy, not running on the economy, not running.”

He argues that the campaign failed to address the immediate concerns of voters, such as economic issues and local community needs, instead opting for abstract or less impactful themes like "democracy." This disconnect, according to Charlamagne, alienated voters who were more concerned with tangible changes affecting their daily lives.

Teslin Figaro adds that the emphasis on national issues overshadowed crucial local matters that directly impacted voters, thereby weakening the campaign’s overall strategy.

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Conclusion

In this compelling episode, The Breakfast Club hosts and their guest dissect the multifaceted reasons behind Kamala Harris’s campaign shortcomings. They underscore the critical need for balanced investment in both high-profile endorsements and grassroots efforts, effective fund allocation, and coherent, voter-centric messaging. The conversation serves as a call to action for future political endeavors to prioritize sustained community engagement and authentic representation to truly resonate with and mobilize diverse voter populations.

Notable Quotes:

• Charlamagne Tha God [02:47]: “America was not going to vote for a woman of color, period.”
• Teslin Figaro [04:44]: “I think that only happens because she's a black woman.”
• Charlamagne Tha God [08:35]: “We need our entertainers. But when you have a hundred days and you're spending more on entertainment setups and not on the ground...”
• Charlamagne Tha God [35:33]: “We need year-round organizing and instead, it was all about the last 100 days.”
• Charlamagne Tha God [27:07]: “They didn't talk about the economy, not running on the economy, not running.”

Note: Timestamps correspond to the points in the provided transcript.

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This summary strives to encapsulate the essence of the discussion, highlighting key arguments and insights shared by the hosts and guest, while maintaining an objective tone.

Transcript

[Jason Alexander]

I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden. And together, our mission on the really Know really podcast is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions, like why the bathroom door doesn't go all the way to the floor. What's in the museum of failure, and does your dog truly love you? We have the answer. Go to reallynoreally.com and register to win $500, a guest spot on our podcast or a limited edition sign. Jason Bobblehead, the Really no really podcast. Follow us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Peter Tilden]

Wake that ass up early in the morning. The Breakfast Club.

[DJ Envy]

Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Jess.

[DJ Envy]

Hilarious Charlemagne, the guy. We are the Breakfast Club. Lauren, the Rosa filling in for Jess. We got a special guest in the building. Gentlemen, she's back. Ms. Teslin Figaro.

[Peter Tilden]

Welcome back.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Hello, hello, hello. How you feeling? What's happening? Charlamagne. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning, Lauren.

[DJ Envy]

How you feeling this morning?

[Charlamagne Tha God]

I'm feeling good. I am. I'm really feeling good. It's good to be back. Back with family. Chop it up with y'all. Drop some dimes, name some names.

[DJ Envy]

Okay, yeah.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Here to get.

[Peter Tilden]

What are we dropping dimes on?

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Dropping dimes on everybody from top to bottom.

[DJ Envy]

Well, let's start right up with the president Presidential election. Why did VP Harris lose?

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Oh, man, I should have brought my whiteboard.

[DJ Envy]

That many?

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Yeah, that many. Yeah. And. And the reason why this is important, I literally have my stuff in in order because a lot of people envy said, you know, she lost because of this reason, she lost because of that. And it's really in the Midwest. A tornado requires water, humidity, wind, you know, multiple things.

[Peter Tilden]

Not one reason.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

It's not one reason. And when I hear people saying, you know, oh, if he just did better with the messaging. Oh, if they did better with the media, I've really kind of put together a list of flowchart on how basically a colossal fuck up from top to bottom.

[Peter Tilden]

So you're doing autopsy.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Yeah, we're doing an autopsy. We're doing a full autopsy. So if we just really take it from the top, as we all said, Joe Biden should have never ran. We have to first, you know, start there. Should have never ran. He said he was a one time. It was going to be a one time president. We talked about it multiple times. He actually volunteered that lie to say, hey, I'm only going to run one term. I'm coming in just to stop Trump immediately. Then they should have started building a base immediately. Right out the gate. Trump was still campaigning this entire time. We talked about it. We talked about how it was constant rallies, constant organizing. You and I talked about it on the Van Jones show. We're saying you guys really have to continue the organizing year round. And that's why I blame a lot of the people at the top who have the ear of the, you know, of the candidates and campaign consultants, because they've been told this multiple, multiple times. So we should have found a white man right then and there who was going to be next in line to build a business.

[DJ Envy]

A white man.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

A white man.

[Peter Tilden]

Young white man.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Absolutely. Young white man. Right then and there. And it's not Governor Newsom, by the way. A lot of people keep saying that Governor Newsom will get swamped.

[DJ Envy]

So from the door, you didn't think Kamala was going to win?

[Charlamagne Tha God]

No. Right out the gate. No, no, no.

[DJ Envy]

Because she's a black woman or.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Yeah, absolutely. So that. That's number three. So let's first get that. So they should establish a. They didn't do that. Governor Newsom. I just want to put that out there. A lot of people like him, great debater. He would have got swamped. You have to remember, he literally passed the bill K through 12 to have shared bathrooms with gender. So imagine what conservatives would have deal with that all over the nation. The homelessness and all of that. So then, yes, number three, America was not going to vote for a woman of color, period. And no, in the history of black woman and white women allied ship, alleged allyship. I have never known a white woman to give a job to a woman of color before they got it. That includes even McDonald's on fries. Just not going to happen. Have you ever, ever, white women ever said, you know what? I think you're more qualified, go ahead and take it. They didn't give it to Hillary Clinton. They were not gonna give it to her. I know there was hope. I know you talked about, you know, believing in us, but it was never about us believing in us. It was about us knowing them. It's not about being qualified. This was when it came down to saying, they didn't give it to Hillary Clinton. Why would they give it to Harris? So that was, to me, an error right out the gate. But we had no choice because Biden.

[Peter Tilden]

I think, I think Kamala as a black woman is the only reason. Well, first of all, two things. The last two elections, the Democratic Party need to be thanking black women, right? Because if it wasn't For Jim Clyburn telling Joe Biden, hey, I'm not endorsing you unless you promise that you're gonna put a black woman on the Supreme Court. I'm not endorsing you. So that's what made him endorse Joe Biden. He went South Carolina changes the complexion of his campaign. If it wasn't for Kamala Harris In 2020, I think a lot of us wouldn't have went out there and voted for President Biden. I didn't vote for President Biden. I voted for Vice President Kamala Harris. I also think in 2024, when you look at the fact that Joe Biden's presidency was dead. Dead, like, completely dead in the water. And Kamala Harris came the top of the ticket, raised all of this money, ended up having the second most votes of any Democratic nominee ever with 74 million votes. I think that only happens because she's a black woman.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Well, two things can be true at the same time. There can be some positives that came with that, but there also can be some negatives. Where we look at the data, we don't have to guess. We looked at where white women aligned. We looked at where the Latino community aligned. We looked at the bottom line. Data that shows Latino women, Latino men.

[Peter Tilden]

Was. That was a surprise?

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Yeah. Why was it a surprise?

[Peter Tilden]

You don't think so?

[Charlamagne Tha God]

No. No. For Democrats, Latinos have always split their vote 50, 50. They've always. When you look at when, you know, I organized for the Bernie Sanders campaign in Michigan, I was the only black woman on the ground in 2015 that helped lift that state. Latino community has always been divided. When you look at Florida and you look at the Cuban community, they've always went conservative. When you look at the Bernie Sanders, the left side, the California, they always go left. They have always strategic, and I'm mad about it. They've always strategically been able to have leverage because they go 50, 50. You remember when Joe Biden told black leaders when he won, right after he said, yeah, he said, I owe you. Black people. Remember when they had the meeting and they leaked the tapes in front of the Al Sharpton and all them and say, y'all need to go follow the Latino community because they're the ones that have the leverage. So I'm not mad at it, but we need to talk about it for what it is. There might be a black and brown coalition in New York. You know, I've talked about that all the time. But when you talk about the. That changed, too. They're moving over when you talk about the south, when you talk about the Midwest, and particularly when you talk about the west, there is no black brown coalition, and it's okay for people to vote their interests. Also got news for you, Black men are conservative. Doing my job. Black people are conservative. I don't know why people want to keep, you know, making that not an issue. So when you're talking about black men and you're talking about other black black people in majority of the country, in the south, majority are moderate. I know progressives want to sell a different story, but black people, for the most part are moderate and a lot of them lean conservative. We're going to get into that when we get into the messaging, but let's just kind of go back a little bit. I agree that there was some positives to it, but when it came down to it, when we looked at race, white women, to me, just like they did in the midterm, just like they did when they were with Obama, Then they went with Trump, and then they went back to Democrats in the midterms, and then they flipped back. When you're talking about white supremacy and talking about positioning, like what they did with the women's suffrage movement, I just didn't see them doing it for a black woman over them. They didn't do it with Hillary Clinton. The only person to ever beat Donald. Donald Trump is Joe Biden. And I agree with you.

[Peter Tilden]

But 52% of white women voted for Clinton. 50%, 55% voted for Biden. So then white women been showing out. White women. White women haven't shown up the last three elections.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Well, but they. But they were also comfortable with Joe Biden. Let's remember Joe Biden is one of them.

[Peter Tilden]

Let's go back to why 55% of white women voted for Trump over Biden.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Right. To align with white supremacy. To align. Because this is about white supremacy. This is about. Would they rather have their household ahead of you as a black man?

[Peter Tilden]

What about with their husbands?

[Charlamagne Tha God]

That's exactly it. And nothing's wrong. And people need to stop these pundits, get them in there. They went against their own interest. No, their interest is their household. Your interest is your interest. My interest is my interest. When I keep hearing people say that they went against their own interest. No, they actually aligned with their interest, which is white man, white woman, black man, black woman. That's the order. That's how it is. Black people are the side chick. Bottom line, we need to just accept that. I know we want to say black girl magic. No, we Want to say, oh, because black this and that. Black women can't save this country. We need to stop selling that dream. Let's get in position and understand what we can do. Which is why I was talking about the local and state level and stop trying to sell this timeshare scam. Because to me, it was a timeshare scam. I agree with you that there was really no other choice. Because Joe Biden was trash. We get that he was trash. So once they said, okay, let's rally around Harris, now she's Democrat nominee. Okay, so cool. We with that. Black women raised $30 million out the gate. Black men raised 30 million out of the gate. So now we're having to deal with who dropped this bag, who dropped this billion dollar bag and that. That's the issue where we get into how they spent the money. I didn't think she had a chance in hell, but once you decided to move forward, okay, so what do we do with the money? Black voters, they lost black voters across the board. That one, 2% across the board makes a difference. When you talk about Michigan, makes a difference in North Carolina. So that's where we get into your concern. When you talk about messaging, where the messaging was all wrong.

[DJ Envy]

Now I wanna ask you about the money. Is it normal for candidates to give so much money to, quote, unquote, entertainment? When you seeing that they paid this person to speak and this person to have that back, Is that normal when it comes to politics?

[Peter Tilden]

Who did they pay to speak, though?

[DJ Envy]

Well, allegedly, we'll say allegedly.

[Peter Tilden]

They didn't pay people to speak.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

They had to pay to speak. But the money that it took to get the setup, the advanced team. That's right, the entertainment. So. So let's go back a little bit. 100 days was impossible even for a white man, in my opinion. I just want to go back to 100 days. Running a campaign was damn near impossible for anybody, in particularly a woman of color. So now we're in this hundred day thing. In order to get people to come out. We do use entertainers and I push back on. People say, don't use entertainers. It's important. Killer Mike talks about it all the time. We need entertainers to mobilize. When you're trying to get that stand field or 20, 30,000 people, you have three days to do it. We actually need our entertainers. The problem, though, envy, is the entertainers not necessarily being aligned with organizers on how to use their voice throughout the year. I would love to see plies like work with an organizer throughout the year, not just election season, so that we can continue to have this conversation. So I don't want to shit on entertainers. We need them. But when you have a hundred days and you're spending more on entertainment setups and not on the ground, and you have organizations like Until Freedom, Tamika Mallory, they got. And again, we can look at the numbers. The numbers are available online, guys, so this ain't making it up. When you're giving organizations like that $150,000 and telling them we'll make it do what it do, that's a problem. No war is won by just the Air Force. I'm an Air Force veteran. You need the Air Force, yes, you need the, the big entertainers, you need the media, you need the podcast. That's the air. But you also need the ground. You need marines and you need the army. And they, bottom line, took black voters for granted, like we've been talking about for years. They figure, well, you know, she's black, so that'll be fine. They literally shitted on organizations. Organizations got $75,000, a hundred thousand dollars, 100 black men, I believe they got like 75,000, $100,000. So what is that saying on how you're trying to organize, you know, with black men? So that's an issue when we talk about this billion dollar bag. And not just because of now envy, but also the infrastructure that we're trying to build. So midterms are in March and I'm independent, so I'm just giving, you know, what it looks like to build this house. You need this money flowing year round. They're trying to build now. So your opponent is over building a house with adding on swimming pools, adding on dodges, add on all this and then they come give the money two, three weeks before the election is over. Before the election. Black organizations did not get money until three weeks before. Literally they told the churches, yeah, nothing they can do with it. And then saying, well, here go $200,000. Make it do what it do. And what I found this time is the gatekeepers got gatekept because the streets was never getting the money. So when they were calling me dropping dies hotels, and we only got this, and I got that last time, we got a lot of money. I said, I'm here to tell you the streets never got any of it. But now that the gatekeepers got gatekeep for the first time, Derek Johnson literally calling out the campaign in an article saying, you guys are not spending money with black media. You're not spending money on the ground, we are literally starving. Most of these organizations had to use this money on their own. And that makes a difference when you're talking about getting out the vote.

[DJ Envy]

Trump didn't use his money as much for entertainers, did he?

[Charlamagne Tha God]

No, he didn't at all.

[Peter Tilden]

He doesn't have a lot of earned media.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Yeah, he. A lot of earned me. Also, Trump has been organizing, and he's never stopped.

[Peter Tilden]

10 years.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

For 10 years, nonstop. When you have a rally every month, when you're engaging people every month, when he's using social media, when he's using truth, he's okay, Twitter, you don't want to work with me, Cool. I just. I'll just go start my own. He has a nonstop organizing machine that Democrats just don't do. They don't develop those relationships. They come in, okay, we got six months. Let's make it do what to do. So this is the result. And so people can say, well, that's just 10%. That's just 1%. But when you add up those numbers across the board, it makes a difference. And I also want to say this, Black conservatives, I want us to have more leverage. I also want us to have more positioning within the Republican Party. If you're gonna move on to the Republican side, where is our leadership, you know, when it comes to that?

[DJ Envy]

Can she run again? Can Kamala Harris run again?

[Peter Tilden]

Let Taz get through her points before.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

We get through all that.

[Peter Tilden]

God damn.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

We don't even know.

[Teslin Figaro]

Wait, before you go to the next thing, I have a question, because it's about what you're talking about. So you saw Candace Owens going back and forth with Ms. Tina Knowles about Beyonce, and Beyonce being involved in the rally in Houston to the point that Candace was making is kind of what you're saying. Do you think that. How do you utilize a major celebrity like a Beyonce? Cause she's not gonna be on the ground. And what should Kamala Harris campaign have done better utilizing a big celebrity of that nature? Because she's getting.

[Peter Tilden]

I think she did.

[Teslin Figaro]

Dragged for it because they're saying it looks unauthentic, and Candace Owens is saying it looks unauthentic. And this is why you didn't win. But Beyonce's not gonna be outside like, you get what I'm saying?

[Peter Tilden]

How did you just say it's true, Tez? Like, they filled the stadium in Houston, right? Because of Beyonce.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Yeah. You have to fill the stadium. And I'm an organizer first before I'm a pundit. So when we use people like that to Tell me who never knocked on no doors. I kind of discredit what they're saying. She has to find talking points to talk about her opponent. Period, point blank. When it comes to Candace Owens, I use Killer Mike as an example. Our brother, Killer Mike, he's an organizer. First. He's always been an organizer. Before he was a rapper, before any other thing. He's an organizer. So when you go to Atlanta, Georgia, and you don't call Killer Mike to take you to the same spots that they took the same Chick Fil A that they took Trump to, the same. The west side of Atlanta had zero signs on the ground. When you don't utilize a Killer Mike, they got barbershops all throughout Atlanta. And you. And he's literally made himself available.

[Peter Tilden]

You could have been sitting in Bankhead Seafood. Right, by the way, until Ted's point. Killer Mike did make himself available.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

He made himself available.

[Peter Tilden]

I know this for a fact.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

This is a fact. And you shit on that. And you think that's not important when an organizer who literally has him and Tip has literally put mayors in office. That's telling me how you feel about your black outreach. Oh, they'll just do it because she's black. Well, I got news for you. The black vote went the opposite direction. It went the opposite direction because people are getting tired of being taken advantage of. They're being tired of not having this conversation year around Charlemagne. And so when you guys did. I'm just gonna go ahead and say it. When you did the thing in Michigan town hall. Yeah, Zeke, New Era Detroit sitting right there in the thing.

[Peter Tilden]

That's right.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

I asked him, hey, campaign ever reached out to you immediately after you said no? They said nothing to me. You can't organize in Detroit and not think you need to talk to a Zeke or New Era of Detroit. That man not only is organizing Detroit all over the country. So when you think that people are just going to do it just because 33% of Detroit is living below the poverty line. So what is that telling you? You have Rashida Tlaib, who organized the Arab American community that literally voted for Trump. Literally Dearborn voted for Trump. And then you had the black vote that was depressed, meaning just not even interested, saying, fuck it, you know, the government is hurting my pocket.

[Peter Tilden]

Rashida voted for Trump.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Dearborn.

[Peter Tilden]

Oh, okay, okay. Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Well, you know, they had the 100,000. They had a hundred thousand people go to the. This ain't being talked about enough. 100,000 people went to the polls to say we are uncommitted. Remember Rashida Sleep literally did a video and said, joe Biden, we ain't with you until there's a ceasefire. We ain't fucking with you.

[Peter Tilden]

That was during the primary.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

That was during the primary. Your number one opponent was a Democrat elected official in Michigan that was literally basically telling voters of sort to sit out and had them go to the polls to vote. I am uncommitted. So that same Dearborn, which she represents, she represents Detroit as well. Dearborn voted for Trump. You look at that, you look at the 2, 3% of the black vote, they couldn't get out in Detroit. So now you're talking about how you can win Michigan. Those are the things, you know, that people are not looking at. And Michigan had a lot of leverage, but he won all swing states, you know, so it wasn't just Michigan, but that's a real problem. You got black people starving in Detroit. You got Dearborn asking for ceasefire. You got the labor union. And this is how we won Michigan with Bernie Sanders. You got the labor union. They won't strike all last year, the year before that. So those people were pissed. You have the college students who are also pushing, you know, anti war and remove college debt was an issue. So those four or five constituents in Michigan made the difference on why you lost. So it was a number of things. You know, it's not just one thing over the others. It's a number of things. I know the podcast was important. It is important to have podcasts. It is important to be able to reach 30 million people at one time. But if you're doing that and you're telling organizations like Until Freedom or organization similar, that here go 100,000 and you need to go to seven states and make it work. When you have the Church of God in Christ, I think they got 100,000, 200,000 and say, hey, go, go make it do what it do. It was impossible.

[Peter Tilden]

You know what I'd like to see? I. I agree. You know, you. I think you got to hit them both, right? You got to have a ground game, and you got to have a mean digital game. I would like to see some of the, the grassroots activists on the ground. I would like to see them start adapting to social media as well, because I feel like they. Those organizations need it.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Yeah, for sure. The partnership, it's not just, you know, one thing. I think a report today said one in every three people get their news from social media. I think it's actually higher than that. So we're not partnering in social media and having that ground game to be, you know, to double it up. It's, it's, it's, it's dead in the water. But you still have to have people knocking on those doors. And bottom line, they should have just bought votes at this point, when you got 100 days. Some of these nonprofits that are out here, somebody in Detroit, you could have funded them. You could have. The same way Trump had Kwame Kilpatrick, you know, the same way they had Harry O People. Oh, what Harry O. Doing? Would that make a difference? If people are looking for pardons and clemencies and all that, you democr have pardoned far more than Republicans have. I asked Governor Westmore, why are you not talking about? I think it was, what, close to 200,000 people that he pardoned for marijuana. Why are y'all not talking about that? Why is that not something y'all talking about? So when Trump brings a trick trick from Detroit and people on shade room, whose trick trick? Oh, nowhere is Detroit know damn well who trick trick is. So when people see that, they're like, well, shit, I don't know what to believe. That 1 2% of falling off makes a difference. Trump capitalized on the lost man, something I've been talking about for 15 years straight. The hood whisper, the lost man. Men who felt like they were not being heard, people who felt like they were not being understood. Now, again, I'm talking civically about black people. I'm not talking about this working class because that translates to white working class. I'm talking about black people who felt like they were not being heard were not being understood. And Trump capitalized on that. People ask, oh, why did he use Amber Rose? Well, guess what? She's from where?

[Peter Tilden]

Pennsylvania.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Right? That's a swing state, so you don't have to like a shade room. But that was very strategic. It made sense to have, I swear, Vezzo, you know, in Detroit, even though on the shade room, who is he? I don't know. Here it's Detroit, that 1 or 2% made a difference. Why didn't you reach out to Kwame Kapatrick? Because he a felon. Is that why you don't think it was important to at least have done the else? Minimize your enemy. There's two things you do in a campaign. Minimize your enemy, maximize your friends. You didn't reach out to that man for a conversation. Whether you like what he did in Detroit or not, the man still was elected. His mama was elected. He comes from a very long lineage. You Know of folks in Detroit, and I think that's even. It's worth having the conversation. So Trump was able to appear as if he was one of them, which he was not, by the way. He's a white man who. Who obviously, if black man could have never gotten away what he got with the fellas. But he was able to appear as if he was. He was able to appear that connection. Why didn't they talk about what Governor Newsom did in California? Removing the gang enhancement. Removing the gang enhance. You got homies who are literally getting on the yard for the very first time. If you do the crime, do the time. No, no problem with that. But in California, most people are affiliated with the gang just by based on where you live. So Governor Newsom has passed great legislation that has allowed people to come home, that. That has allowed people to actually get on the yard for the very first time. I got 10,000 homies right now in LA that were organized for the next governor just based off that one thing. They didn't talk about those things. Envy. Because they sit in this elitist positioning, you know, of. Let's just not talk about that. You know, let's just vote. Let's go high and go low. And Trump was able to capitalize on that, and that made a difference. When you talk about a 10%, I.

[Peter Tilden]

Think it's hard for them to capitalize on something like the Newsom thing, because it is something that's regulated to California. Like the First Step act was a federal. A federal law that people act that he did a phenomenal job of showing, look, I bought this person home and I bought that person home. And there was other people on social media that would talk about, man, my people just came home because of the first step back. I actually think the first step back, people don't really credit that enough. They wanna talk about stimulus checks and PPP loans. But when you can actually see one of your homies come home from prison, that's a big deal.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Yeah. And we saw what happened in real time. But I just wanted to push back a little bit on how you capitalize against that. How you can capitalize. When you look at what Governor Moore was able to do the federal. When they took the federal for the marijuana.

[Peter Tilden]

Yeah.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Simple possession marijuana, you show the connection. So, yes, that was federal.

[Teslin Figaro]

Bigger.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Right. But Governor Moore was able to actually utilize that. Without that federal partnership, it wouldn't have happened. So it does trickle down. But the Democrats never connect the dots to show you this is how it actually works. Federal was able to Help the state. State was able to help the local and so on and so forth. So there's ways to do it. They just don't do it, Charlemagne. Because they feel as if, you know, let's focus on these imaginary voters. Let's spend all this money on white women. Let's spend all this money on. On. They're scared to get working class. Yeah. And so Trump was able to capitalize on that just enough. Remember, this is about margins in the swing state. So when you got 1 or 2%, that's saying, I'm sitting on the couch. Or 1 or 2%, that's saying I'm going in a different direction. It makes a difference.

[Peter Tilden]

Oh, yeah. Especially when you look at the election. I mean, I think what Trump had 76.1 million votes. Harris had 74. And it's just all those margins. She lost by the margins in a lot of those swings.

[Teslin Figaro]

So what you think about Trump's Cabinet? Like, his. His choices for his cabinet right now? Because, I mean, these are the people that you're going to have to be.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Yeah, I don't think nothing. I think Republicans ran, Democrats ran. Is going to be a dictator. Guess what? They want a dictator. We've been saying this forever. We've been talking about this, this day of bipartisanship, and let's just get it through Congress. We said Charlemagne. You know, I said it a million times, like with the George Floyd act, reducing college debt. Do an executive order. Everybody said, you can't do executive order. Got to go through Congress. Republicans gonna change it back. If you get in, they're gonna change it back. Guess what? Republicans don't give a damn about changing it back. They Change back Roe vs what about change back? A whole bunch of shit. Obamacare and everything else. Democrats refuse to work as a dictator. They want a dictator. Everybody's saying, oh, man, he gonna be a dictator. Right. That's why they want. Oh, yes, he's gonna take migrants out.

[Peter Tilden]

Yes.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

That's what they wanted. People need to stop saying that. Online is driving me crazy. Oh, Latinos. Oh, man. Oh, man. Y'all about to see. They want the immigrant people who are legal, who come on this country legal. They are literally telling you, yes, we, we do. We don't support illegal immigration. So people that thinking they saying something on social media. Oh, y'all gonna see. No, they want a dictator. We Democrats ran on democracy, they ran on dictatorship. I'd be a dictator day one. That's exactly what they want, a dictator. Somebody's gonna push the line. Somebody ain't gonna give damn about what Congress is talking about. Somebody to say, I don't, I don't care what the rules are. I'm gonna do what I want to do. They want a gangster, period.

[Peter Tilden]

Y that I wouldn't say dictator, but they want somebody that don't give a and is going.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

You wouldn't say. He said he was going to be a dictator on day one.

[Peter Tilden]

He said that on day one. But, but I think what they, what people mean when they say they just want somebody that's going to say, you know what? As long as things are getting done for the people, I don't care how it gets done. Like John Stewart did a great, a great monologue last night and he was just like Democrats always follow the norms and Republicans don't follow the norms. They gonna find those loopholes to break.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

The which is kind of like dictatorship.

[Peter Tilden]

Though I wouldn't call it dictatorship.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

He said he gonna do what he want to do. So I mean that's saying I'm going to do this and if you don't do it, it's going to be hell to pay if you don't do it, you know, I'm gonna make sure you don't win. If you don't do it, I'ma call you out. We talked about this with Joe Manchin. They let, they set up now Joe Mansion seed is still a Republican. We've been talking about this. This has been going on for the last 15 years. This loss was not just what happened in the last 100 days. This has been, at least from my experience, 2007. I can name year over year over year on what happened on how we got here. And then another thing I want to bring up on this messaging abortion Democrats ran on reproductive rights and democracy fail right out the gate. You had states like Arizona and Nevada that had abortion on the ballot. So Democrats mindset is let's put abortion on the ballot. And that's going to bring, you know, people so people know, get out the vote. Gotv. That's how you get out the vote. Oh, they're going to go to the polls now that abortions on the ballot. Well, what you did, meatball head, you actually allow Republican women who were pro choice to actually vote for abortion and still vote for Trump. There's no rule that says if you support pro choice that you won't vote for Trump. So Republican women in Nevada and Arizona literally had the opportunity to bring abortion back and still vote for Trump. So Democrats shot themselves even in the foot. If you were expecting women to go vote for reproductive rights because you gave them an out. And then that was a mistake. Out the gate. Look at Michigan. Michigan. You can get an abortion in Michigan. So that don't land anywhere. I know people want this idea, especially black voters, because we like to take care of everybody. And, oh, what about them in Texas? But the average person is voting their personal interests. That's it. And if I can get an abortion in Michigan, what matters to me if you get it in Arizona or Nevada or whatever it was. So when you're running on reproductive rights, which I think was a mistake, and. And just democracy. People didn't give a damn about democracy. We talked about it when I was sitting here in 2018, those first question you asked me out the gate, what do people think about today? They don't give a damn. It's white folks. White folks don't give a. About no insurrection. They'll do it. And this is what's been happening in this country 400 years. So the messaging was wrong. Out the gate. We talked about that. Not running on the economy, not running. But I still think, though, envy, even if she would have ran on all of those things, they still was gonna vote for. They still would've rather voted for Joe Biden. Have dead Weekend at Bernie's, you know, I don't think so. They didn't even win Scranton. They didn't even win Scranton. Joe would at least won Scranton.

[Peter Tilden]

He won Scranton.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Yeah. He would at least want Scranton. Harris lost Scranton. I don't know.

[Peter Tilden]

I think Joe would have got like 65 million votes.

[Teslin Figaro]

Okay, so if what you're saying is true, what was all. Because I felt how you. How you feel now is how I felt in the beginning. And then when I saw the excitement and the money moving and all of that, you guys, we got a chance. What was all of that then? Why was that? I didn't think Joe would win either.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

But I didn't think he was gonna win. But he should have held the L.

[DJ Envy]

Joe wouldn't have got close.

[Peter Tilden]

When you got the donor saying, we're not giving you no more money.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Well, you have no choice.

[Peter Tilden]

That's right.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Yeah. So let's be clear. They did not have a choice. Cause George Clinton said, yeah, they said they didn't have no choice of two things to be true at the same time. They had to put Harris in no doubt about that. I'm not disagreeing with that. But I still don't think they would have voted for. They just would shouldn't. They're just not going to Give something that they didn't get first. Did she do the best that she could? Yes. Did she do everything they told her to do? Yes. Did she have 100 days to do it? Yes. This is not about on her. This is about setting up a woman to fail in a hundred days to do the damn near impossible. I think Joe Biden should have took that L. He's the one that said, you know, he was going to run. He's the one that set up there the entire time. They didn't build the. Let him take the L don't. Why now are you putting it on.

[Peter Tilden]

That bench, by the way?

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Yeah.

[Teslin Figaro]

I thought it was like the friendly don't do that to my.

[DJ Envy]

So can she run again? Would you advise her to run again?

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Because it's again. We got to stop with I don't know what this obsession we got with federal. I'm going to keep pushing that. Let them have it. Let's talk about, especially Republicans now saying give it to the state. If you really want to make real change in your community. I know it's not as sexy, I know it's not as exciting, but it really is at the state level. It really is at the local level. If you believe in. You want to fund the public schools, you can do it at a local level. If you say, you know what, I want charter schools, I want to be able to educate our own, you can do that at the local level. Why are we so infatuated with this White House? I don't, I don't, I don't get it. Why not be in Atlanta council with 16 other people, in Orlando with six other people to be able to say, I'm gonna write a check to the black business investment fund. You know, to be able to say, hey, here's some money to go start a business. You can reparations at the local level. So I don't understand this obsession that we have with this federal thing. And I'm gonna be honest with you, Lauren. Black women, a lot of times, the.

[DJ Envy]

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[Peter Tilden]

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[Jason Alexander]

I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden. And together on the really Know really podcast, our mission is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions. Like why they refuse to make the bathroom door go all the way to the floor. We got the answer. Will space junk block your cell signal? The astronaut who almost drowned during a spacewalk gives us the answer. We talk with the scientist who figured out if your dog truly loves you and the one bringing back the woolly mammoth. Plus, does Tom Cruise really do his own stunts? His stuntman reveals the answer. And you never know who's gonna drop by. Mr. Bryan Cranston is with us.

[Peter Tilden]

How are you?

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Hello.

[Jason Alexander]

My friend Wayne Knight. About Jurassic Park. Wayne Knight, welcome to really no, really, sir.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Bless you all.

[Jason Alexander]

Hello, Newman. And you never know when Howie Mandel might just stop by to talk about judging.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Really? That's the opening. Really?

[Jason Alexander]

No.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Really?

[Peter Tilden]

Yeah, really?

[Charlamagne Tha God]

No, really.

[Jason Alexander]

Go to reallynoreally.com and register to win 500 a guest spot on our podcast or a limited edition sign Jason Bobblehead. It's called really no really? And you can find it on the iHeartRadio app on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Get caught up. And it's wanting to be validated so damn bad. So when the excitement was there, when everybody's like, oh, man, we can do this, we can do this. Black girl Madison. We do this, we can do this, we can do this. This validation of needing to be affirmed, needing to say, you are qualified enough, you are good enough. A lot of that played into it. A lot of that played into it. But let's not forget 3,000 black women did a petition and said, joe Biden, keep your ass in. They ignored that and went with the money to Charlamagne's point. They didn't have a choice.

[Peter Tilden]

I agree with you, especially about the state thing. You know, there's something else Trump said. That man landed. And I was. I'm still trying to Figure out how did he land this? Because it's so hard to get people to focus on this, the abortion thing. Right. He told them, I wanted to be in the hands of the state. So whenever you would have conversations with people about, you know, abortions on the ballot, they'd be like, no, Trump just wants it to be in the hands of the state. I've never seen a politician convince people on a national level. The, the, it's, it's going to be local, and that's fine. And they buy into it.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Well, Trump can get anybody to buy anything he say. I mean, he's a total. Democrats have never been equipped to run against Trump. Let's just name it, you know, let's just. They've never been equipped to run against somebody. He's too petty, he goes too low. He don't give a damn what y'all talking about.

[Peter Tilden]

And he's an entertainer first.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Entertainer first. And so they've never been equipped to go against this man. Never. But to your point, Charlemagne, for those that understand the state's rights and when you go back to Reagan, reason why black people are against that is because what it does is it disenfranchise, disenfranchise, disenfranchise us even more. So if you're saying, okay, in Oklahoma, you can't get access to health care, but you can get access to health care in California. Very liberal. These are folks that can't just. Just pick up, you know, and go to California to get what they need, don't have the money. So it affects poor people in a, in a very bad way. The state's rights. But conservatives, they like states. Give it to the states, their mindset. If you don't like it, move somewhere else. But not of us had not enough of us have the resources to just move, you know, to somewhere else to just move where things, you know, may be favorable to you. So as black voters, we're always trying to carry the least of these and everybody else and think about everybody else. But for. But the reality is, Charlamagne, people are only looking at what's in front of their doorstep. And, and if, and if I can do XYZ in Michigan, if I can have a successful business with zero regulations. In Atlanta, when Covid happened, when Governor Kemp, you know, a lot of we don't like Governor Camp, but Atlanta was still. Atlanta was still thriving. Black business was still thriving. Georgia's still thriving. So when people look outside their door, when. Remember when Governors DeSantis reduced the gas when they was talking about you can't do nothing about the gas. When gas was so high, he said, oh, no, I can do something about this. Why I talk about state. So when people remember that even though there's more liberal, more Democrat voters in Florida, people remember what affected pocket and that Republican governor made a difference. Kemp in Georgia made a difference, was passing out Kemp cards. He did the same thing Trump did when he signed his name, he gave him Kemp cards. People remember that. So you can have a state with a republic, Democrat governor like North Carolina, but they still went with Trump because they're looking at how does it trickle down. You can have a state that flipped and went blue, but have a governor Kemp who's a Republican. People like their governor. People don't have to like Texas. You don't have to like Texas in New York, but your money gonna go far in Texas. Ask any felon in Texas. They working in oil fields. 18 an hour, 25 an hour, 30 an hour. That makes a difference. So even if they don't like Republicans, even they don't like Trump, when you're looking at how that affects your money daily, it makes a difference. And that's where they lost as far as really trying to understand, you know, the economic conversation, especially with black people.

[Peter Tilden]

What else we got on the list? Because I know you got something on that list.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

I got a lot on the list. I kind of want to just deal with Michigan quickly because I do have some concern with that. I mentioned Rashida Tlaib, and I'm not mad about how she was able to organize her voters, but I do have some concern for Detroit. I do feel as if Detroit does not have the voice that they should have, that Rashida Salee was able, and she should. I think she went hard in the paint. She's a Palestinian woman. I expect her to. I have no issue with that. But I do feel like Detroit kind of got crashed out a little bit, that there's not representation. Detroit is one of the blackest cities in the country. And so when you had a few enough that say, you know what, I just don't want to be a part of the process anymore. And that entire conversation was on Gaza. And I know there's a talking point and progressives going to come in and tell you that the polls say that black people are concerned about Gaza. And yes, we are. We do have. We are very compassionate. But if you ask the average black person, black American, on what they're most concerned about, they're talking about, again, their own front door. They're more Concerned about what's happening here over what's happening in geopolitics. So to be able to be. To be a single issue voter, I don't have no problem with Rashida Talib. None at all. But when you. You had three Black women who ran against Rashida Saleem in 2022, all three of them combined still didn't have even half of which Rashida Tlieb has. So she has the votes, she has the power. But I feel Detroit is not getting. They're just doing at least being a part of the conversation. And I hope that changes.

[DJ Envy]

What else you got on that list?

[Charlamagne Tha God]

I think that's it. Unless y'all got something else to go over.

[Peter Tilden]

You know, I wanted to ask you about Hakeem Jeffries. Hakeem Jeffries said this week that he sees. He says Democrats are set up for a major comeback. You think that's possible?

[Charlamagne Tha God]

But what's the comeback? Let me. Let me know.

[Teslin Figaro]

Ain't no comeback.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

What's the comeback?

[Teslin Figaro]

This is like, I ain't never seen that rapper. I've never seen nothing like this tape. But they still do it anyway. And then they don't connect. I don't think so.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

I don't think. First of all, and I forgot, I want to name a couple of names. Cause a lot of people ain't named the names. I do encourage people to go look at that list. There were two names that kept popping up over and over. Quentin, no disrespect, I've never met him, you know, but he was in charge of the bag. And also Cedric Richmond. Now, you remember when Cedric Richmond came on the Breakfast Club and said, hold him accountable.

[Peter Tilden]

Remember that?

[Charlamagne Tha God]

A couple of years I've been.

[Peter Tilden]

I don't even listen to when Cedric made that statement on Breakfast Club and said, hold him accountable if anything doesn't go the way it's supposed to go in the Biden administration. And then he just disappeared.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Right?

[Peter Tilden]

He left his position. We didn't even know he left his position. I. I don't. I ain't pay Cedric no attention.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Well, he literally told Grassroots organization, if y'all just want the money, just say that. Yeah, we saying that. Where's. And I'm saying this completely. I didn't ask for no check. Don't want no check. Not interested in no check. I'm just telling you what the people said.

[Peter Tilden]

You ain't getting none of the billion.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

I didn't get none of the billion.

[Peter Tilden]

That million was going around.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Yeah, but they told black people, money.

[Teslin Figaro]

Don'T like like, you need money for things. Like, why is that such a. Like a falsehood or something like that?

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Well, no, they know. They. They got it. It just didn't come to black folks. It didn't go to black media. Al Sharp did get some. It got 500. Yeah, rolling. Got his check too. Rolling. What's happening? Rolling. Can let me hold something. But. But it don't seem strange when that.

[DJ Envy]

Money went out and they still in the negative and still they Strange.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

They do it every year. They've been doing this like this. They do it every year. And it's again, it's not just on the entertainers, these white liberal consultants who run this party, because they do. And then they tell the black folks in charge, the gatekeepers of the other gatekeepers, to tell them, okay, give them a hundred thousand, give them 150, give it to. They kept lying, saying, oh, the money coming, the money coming. They literally didn't give it to them three weeks until three weeks out. So now, now you wonder why you lost the black vote.

[DJ Envy]

What are they giving them this money for? So, like for instance, Roland Martin or Reverend Al. What do they use that money for? The only reason I said that.

[Peter Tilden]

Cause you just said they rolling with advertising.

[DJ Envy]

Advertising, yes.

[Peter Tilden]

I don't know what the. I don't know what. Rev. I was.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Well, brother, they. They gave. We really naming names, ain't we? That's what I'm just asking.

[DJ Envy]

Y'all put the number.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Well, they gave it to National Action Network. They gave a donation to him.

[Peter Tilden]

Yes. Two donations of a quarter million dollars.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Yes. And so that organization is an organization, you know, that works year round, I guess, you know, allegedly for. And I'm not saying that, you know, to be funny, but, you know, for outreach, so. But again, it can't just be on just revenue, you know, it's not just on, you know. No, no, I'm glad. No, I'm saying I want to be clear. It can't. You can't just continue to keep spending money just on revenue, you know, these organizations. Why are you not. Again, why are you not connecting with these grassroots organizations who are literally struggling, literally struggling to give them the money so that they can organize year round, you know, in order to keep people engaged and bottom line by votes. That's what they did with the Latino community. They put in the midterms, they put 30 different community centers in Florida. Wasn't just about voting. They was coming in trying to figure out what they could get, health care, trying to figure out what resources they could get, try to figure you literally took care of the community. That's where that money's supposed to go. Envy. It's not just for advertising. Advertising is important, but it's more than that. You literally are supposed to buy votes, guys. That's how it works. Buy votes.

[DJ Envy]

That sound crazy.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Yeah, it's buying votes. When I say that, I mean, if you got a non profit in you in the hood, and I'm. And I give you 300,000, and I'm telling you, use that 300,000 throughout the year to do job training. Use that 300,000 throughout the year to do resume building. Use that 300,000 to put people in a better position. Now people can feel it and say, okay. And then that organization has responsibility to say, this came from the Harris campaign. This came from xyz. This is how we got what we got. And then now people can say, okay. I feel it. Like with the first step back, they feel it, they can see it, they can touch it. And Republicans have just did a better job with that. It's not. The Democrats don't have the receipts. They just don't talk about the receipts. Their messaging has always been poor and raggedy as hell, which is why I left in 2010. So it's not that they don't have the receipts. They just don't talk about. They don't feel they have to. They feel they know it all, and turns out they didn't know at all. They knew it all and knew absolutely nothing. They didn't listen to any advice that people gave them. They said they knew what was best. Yes. They said, we got this, and turns out you didn't have it.

[Peter Tilden]

I'm gonna be honest. I don't know how much it. Well, I take that back. I do know there was a lot of people out there that was giving genuine good advice. But what I realized is the people who was out there giving genuine good advice was the people who were really doing it out of the goodness of their heart. A lot of other people I heard talking, they was really upset they wasn't getting no money.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Right?

[Peter Tilden]

And so a lot of the stuff that they were saying was literally just based off of, when y'all gonna give me some money? When y'all give me some money. Everybody that I heard actually giving good advice was not getting paid by the campaign.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Right?

[Peter Tilden]

And those are the ones who weren't getting listened to.

[Teslin Figaro]

Why do. Why can't the why you not giving me some money be a call sign too?

[Peter Tilden]

For real?

[Teslin Figaro]

Like, if you got enough people saying, we need we need, we need. It's like, okay, we need to figure out why do I keep saying we need? Like, that's common sense to me as a politician.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Well, you should be paying for it. The goodness of the hard shit is over with. I mean, like, I've done get us to the heart for a long time and it basically gonna make you a full time Uber driver. At the end of the day, people gotta get paid. But yet, yes, people have their own interests on why they were trying to get xyz and they pissed because they didn't get the money. A lot of these people that you're, that you're talking about, they got paid. Last time they weren't saying about the streets, but now that they got gate kept, now it's, oh, man, what's going on? You know, I've never had so many calls and people say, oh man, we didn't get this. And get that. I'm saying streets bending it. You know, I'm talking about those grassroots organizations. They never were getting the money. So, yes, people have their own special interests on why they're trying to get it. But it's a billion dollars. Pass it out. If we gonna run this scam, this timeshare scam, then, yeah, give it out. There's nothing wrong with that as well. So whether it was the goodness of the heart or good advice, because they had an interest, they weren't listening to anybody. Charlamagne. They really do believe that they have all of the answers. Like literally all of the answers.

[Peter Tilden]

And it was so wrong about everything when they had that whole, oh, black men aren't gonna show up and vote for the vice president. And President Obama was out there waving his finger at us. It's like, like, no, y'all should be focusing on these white women.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Right, Right.

[Peter Tilden]

Like those are the ones that haven't shown up the last couple elections. The Latino men. I didn't hear them putting a real emphasis on that either. But the Latino people didn't show up for them. So it was just like, I just saw them make mistake after mistake. Another thing I would say is you had a presidential campaign that had trouble connecting with the working class. Right? Cause they had a bunch of consultants who got backgrounds with these giant companies. Do you think that they should just bring people on these campaigns that are literally from the grassroots? Because to me, those were the best ideas coming from.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Yeah, okay, that's exactly the best idea is coming in another point. I'm glad you brought that up, Charlemagne. When I. When also a lot of fringe groups you know, people that were giving them hell online, that they ignore that they say, oh, that's just, you know, oh, that's just them talking. Oh, that's just them talking.

[Peter Tilden]

That's right.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Again, minimizing your enemy. So there were groups online that are literally talking to fifty thousand, a hundred thousand people every week. You, you don't have to think that's important. But when you got groups online saying, reparations are, are not. Sit on the couch, don't do this, don't do that, and you're ignoring that group as a, as a, as a real constituency, and you're saying, oh, don't worry about it. They just online. Well, over time, because again, a lot of these people, and they rock with me, they're talking about this year round. See, while you're just talking about this, this last 100 days, they're talking to 100, 150, 000 people every week, every week, every week, every week, and nobody pick up the phone to say, hey, can I have a meeting with you? Can I at least see what you're talking about? Can we at least have some kind of common ground? When Democrats in California threw black folks under the, under the bus, you know, one, reparations, nobody thought it was worth even having a conversation with the folks online that are giving you hell. When you look at people, I'm just gonna say, the homie Tariq Nasheed, giving them hell online every day, nobody think you could call and say, hey, y'all did a whole rally on reparations in D.C. let's have a conversation. What can we do to at least hear what you say? So when you do that, that just continues to motivate them to over and over and over, they ain't fucking with us. And that makes a difference when you talk about 1 and 2% in these.

[Peter Tilden]

Margins, I agree with you wholeheartedly. And I think it's about when you do it to your point earlier, everybody who's thinking about running in 2028, they should start campaigning now, right? Don't wait until the year of the election to start reaching out to these different people, because then it looks fake, it looks like it's not authentic. It looks like you don't really care. Start making those connections now. But let me ask you a question.

[DJ Envy]

Do you think it should be that like Charlemagne said, or do you think we should take a page out of Canada's book and out of France's book, where it's like, like there's a cap, there's a specific time limit you know what I mean? Because people get fatigued and after a while, people like f all this ish, you know what I mean? Do you feel like we should go more into that? Because now it's almost like big bank take little bank, you know what I mean?

[Peter Tilden]

I mean, as far as campaigning is concerned. Oh, should there be shorter campaigns?

[DJ Envy]

Should it be shorter campaign? Because you know Canada, they have a specific time limit, whether it's three months or a certain amount of money that has to.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Yeah, it has changed. It used to be six months, one year, two years. Congress has to run every two years. The minute they get in office, they're campaigning and trying to raise them money. So no, we are in a year around. Donald Trump has changed this and will forever be changed. This is a year around effort year round, resources year round. That's why I do my training, push the line, nonpartisan training year round, getting people in position. That's what Project 2025 is all about. People can think it's fake or not fake, but that's all about putting people in position, putting people at the commissioner level, putting people at the state level, putting people at the state if they're not investing year around. If you're, if you're going to bring plies into the game, the implies partner with somebody like myself or somebody like Auntie Free somebody else to help bring this noise year round. Because what happens is the day after election you go, you go back to talking about, you're talking about before and now you got to start the machine all over again.

[Peter Tilden]

Said nothing from the car since the election, talking about Starbucks and all kind of stuff.

[Teslin Figaro]

Well, he did say he had woke up, remember he said he missed the election night, but he woke up and saw. He did say that after.

[Peter Tilden]

But since then I ain't seen him ply talking about Starbucks and, and women feet. I ain't seen him talking about.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Right. And that, that's that man, I love. I ran for office in 2011 in Orlando. First person I reached out to was Plies. I talked to his manager, he said, you know, plies don't do politics. He not in politics. So to see him doing this now and reached out to him again since then, by the way, reached out to his manager to say, why don't you help me get these people trained. You have a voice. Get these people trained. 2011 said, man, come on, let's do something with the 100 years, the 100 years record that he got got. Let's do something about mass incarceration in Florida. So when I watch him doing that every day non stop is heartbreaking to me because we do need our entertainers, but we need them to. I don't expect them to do the work year round. Entertainers like getting applauses. And see, this work is about getting booze. This work is not about applause. They only want to be. No disrespect, but entertainers like responding to the applause. So the minute you start booing them, the minute you start saying, I don't like you. We saw with Ice Cube when he took a chance and went out there and talked about, you know, the state of black America and people started booing him and all. We ain't seen nice Cube since either. So you know that. And people, you gotta be able to.

[Peter Tilden]

Take that smoke they can't take.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

And then they say, oh, I don't blame Cube for leaving, but I do, though, I love it when he leave.

[Peter Tilden]

No, I love being in the trenches. I like it.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

I, I blame you, though, because, homie, you done set up here and got it. I didn't reach out to Cube too. You got everybody excited. I don't expect you to do the work year round, but partner with people that can because we need, we need people like that. Glorilla, come talk to your homegirl. Like, Glorilla need people in her ear too, to know she got a hell of a story. Story? Why, why are we not connecting her with people that actually know her story? Sexy Red. Oh, we don't need Sexy Red. Yes, we do. She a whole die move. Maybe y'all don't know how to talk to her, but she can go partner with some of the homies that not even on the list at all. Not even on a voter list. When you bring 10,000 people into the fold, 15,000 people in the fold is not even on anybody's list, that nobody's free. That's how you win these elections. That's why Trump was able to make that difference on people who were not engaged at all. But in order to do that, you have to do it year round. You cannot do it. No. 90 days before the campaign. It's never going to work.

[Peter Tilden]

I agree with you. I think what, I think what we're saying is because I think that's what people think, people think that entertainers are the leaders, that the generals, they're not. They're the soldiers.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Right.

[Peter Tilden]

And you want them to be the soldiers.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Right?

[Peter Tilden]

To go organize the people, to bring them back to the actual general, the people that actually do the work.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Absolutely, yes, absolutely. And y'all can have the mic. We ain't trying to take the mic from you. Like, we get it to get the mic, but pass it on to people that are really, really, really trying to do it. I will do the heavy lifting. The organizer will do the heavy lifting. Our platforms are never going to be as big, you know, as a cube or a Glorilla or Sexy Red. And I don't want to encourage, discourage them to get out because that's also what's happening. Because now they didn't put their cloud on the line and then now you got entertain. Like, I'm not getting in that again, man. That.

[Peter Tilden]

Oh, yeah. Especially when the candidate loses.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Yeah, exactly, exactly. Because you don't put them in position to make it seem like, oh, all we got to do is have Beyonce get up and talk and it's all. And now you got her look, like you said Candace, on people calling her out, people. And that's not on her, it's not on Beyonce, it's not on these. But you do need people to get people to the stands. But it's on. It's the year around organizing that they just refuse, refuse to do. So I want our entertainers to stay in the game. I just want you to partner with organizers that really actually give a damn about this work. Because we really do, you know, year round. And we don't have enough killer mics, in my opinion.

[Peter Tilden]

Tell them how to connect with you and your Push the Line movement.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Yes, Push the line politics until something happens. And thank you guys for supporting that when we did. I guess it was two years ago when I came to Breakfast Club. We had over 300 people. You know, they came to Atlanta on their own dime to learn how to be candidate credits, to learn how to be operatives, to learn how to be organized. It's a nonpartisan training that I created. These people flew from all over LA, Dallas, Houston, New York in the room, you know, 300 people. That's why when people tell me, don't nobody want to do this, they're not interested. That's not true. Jade was there in the background. She came to the training, came all the way from D.C. these people were outside at 6am in the morning in the rain to learn how to do this. They want the training. They want to know how can I change on the local level. But we just don't have enough support to get around it. So I'm asking people to text, push the line. All caps, push the line. The 66866. And I'm trying to get partners, guys I'm trying to. People over 50 cities have said, can you bring the training here?

[Teslin Figaro]

But I'm teaching people in the training how to organize.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

How to organize if you want to be a candidate, if you want to be an operative, if you want to be an organizer, whatever it is you want to do. I believe my training is one of the best. And the reason why is because it truly is a military mindset. It truly is cutting through all the. I've been to all the trainers. I've been to Congressional Black Caucus training, White House training, Yale women's school, law school. I've been to them all, and all of them sell a bunch of. Respectfully, you know, they come in and tell you, you know, you're going to have a stab. You're going to have this and that. My train is really designed to tell you, no, Lauren, it's really just gonna be you with $20 now. Wouldn't. How can we, you know, move from that? So people are hungry. They want the information. I'm trying to get people to partner to help me do more of it, because I can't just do it. It, you know, myself out of my own pocket. I can't. I don't want to charge people. People don't have the money to pay for it. So we're just trying to, you know, keep building up that momentum and hopefully be able to do.

[Teslin Figaro]

They need people to text to join. And you also looking for.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Yeah, I need. Charmaine, write me a check. Oh, yeah.

[Peter Tilden]

What you need?

[Charlamagne Tha God]

What you need?

[Peter Tilden]

I'll make a donation right now. What you need?

[Charlamagne Tha God]

I know. Charlemagne. I pass the big. Yeah, let's give 150,000. We can go through.

[Peter Tilden]

That's a lot. Now we can help get you there. Now 50 people got $1,000 the holiday season.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Yeah. And I do want to say that also Wisconsin. I don't know if y'all notice. Largest black male incarceration in the country. The highest black femicide rate. Yes. More black women are murdered in Wisconsin than anywhere. They didn't give any money to Milwaukee at all. So now you're expecting. That's what you were expecting. And also, Wisconsin is one of the most. The least diverse state in the country. So now you're going to run a former state attorney in Wisconsin where black men are locked up more than you know. This is true. Whether you like it, we got to deal with what it really is. They weren't trying to hear any. Any of that. They on Wisconsin. They on Milwaukee. They used to do hip hop week there every year. They don't have the budget to do that anymore. They were trying to bring, say, Tesla, how can we come down, get out the vote? They couldn't get $2,500 together to say, let's get the vote out. They went to the white voters in Wisconsin. So these are the kind of things, guys, that we just have to put on the table. I know people saying, tez, move on. Just deal with it. No, we have to call this shit out, Gu. If we continue to mismanage this money, then we're not, you know, actually getting the help, you know, that we need. And it's critically important.

[Peter Tilden]

If I text, push the line to this number. That still work? All right. Text, push the line to 6, 6, 6. No, 6, 6, 8, 6, 6. Text, push the line to 668-6-6. To join Tez's email list for Push the line.

[DJ Envy]

That's right.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Thank you.

[DJ Envy]

We appreciate you for joining us.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Thank you for. Let me go through my list.

[DJ Envy]

It's all good. It says in Figaro, it's the Breakfast Club. Gambling. Morning.

[Peter Tilden]

Wake that ass up early in the morning. The Breakfast Club.

[Jason Alexander]

I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden. And together, our mission on the really no really podcast is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions, like why the bathroom door doesn't go all the way to the floor, what's in the museum a failure? And does your dog truly love you? We have the answer. Go to really no really and register to win 500 a guest spot on our podcast or a limited edition sign. Jason Bobblehead, the Really no Elite podcast. Follow us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.