(upbeat music) - That music means it's time for the Don Lemon Show, specifically the one that we call Lemon Live at Five. I can't tell you how excited and happy I am today to be with this young lady. We spent so much time together doing such great work during George Floyd and during the 2020 election. And now here we are in 2024. I'm gonna get to Latasha Brown in just a moment. I'm so happy she's joining us. But it is official. The Vice President Kamala Harris, Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz, they're gonna sit down for their first joint interview. They're gonna do it tomorrow night as Democrats work to broaden their base as excitement from last week's Democratic National Convention, which by the way, unofficially I hear whether they join COVID spirit or anything. We won't talk about that. The interview's gonna be conducted by my very dear friend, Ms. Dana Bash. You may know that, Dana's a close friend, even at my wedding, we're so close. And if we have time later, maybe I've already asked her for some behind the scenes information that she can share with me. But Dana is the consummate professional, so we'll see what she shares and whatever she shares will be on the professional level. So this is a big deal, or is it? Do you think it's a big deal? Because they keep trying to push her to do an on the record interview. They're saying, "Oh, she hasn't done an interview." But I say it's not like the woman is hiding. She has been out there, oh, Latasha, hold on. I know you're rare to go. I feel like it's not like she's hiding. She's been out there even before the president dropped out of the race. I saw her taking questions at Essence Fest from journalists. So let me introduce Latasha Brown, she's a renowned community organizer, political strategist. She is the co-founder of Black Voters Matter, an organization who's get out the vote efforts, have literally turned the tide of major elections like the Alabama Senate race in 2017. And I believe the presidential race in 2020 as well. Latasha Brown, how are you doing? Take it away, am I wrong? It's not like she's hiding. I don't think, I mean, I'm great for Dana and everybody. I don't think it's a big deal. - How is she hiding in plain sight? - Hey, Dawn, I'm happy to be here. She's, I mean, this woman has been in, only in the White House for less three to half years. I mean, she's been out there. I think this is a distraction. We have to really, like when we get information, we have to recognize where the source is. The source, this has been coming. You know, I think that the Republican party and Trump, they're panicking. They're panicking. They don't have anything to actually say they're really, he wasn't expecting this, wasn't prepared for it. And so what do you do now? Do you create some kind of chaos or some distraction? This big idea, she's not sitting down. She's been talking for three and a half years about the situation. She's literally been sharing her own platform, even when we saw at the Democratic National Convention. So a lot of this, I think it's a lot of hoopla around the create, try to create a distraction. But I do think it's good that she's sitting down in an interview. That's always, I think, the opportunity for people to meet her. - Great mindset to like. I think that if you are in politics, if you are going to be the leader of the free world, and if you are the leader of the free world, or the vice president, or whatever it is, I think that you should sit in front of journalists and that you should take questions. But what's good for the goose is good for the gander. Because I am old enough to remember when Donald J. Trump stopped speaking to major networks, including the one that I was on, and stopped giving interviews, I did six or maybe eight before he became president of the United States. Once he became president of the United States, we were fake news, didn't grant us an interview, would only talk to friendly media, would only talk as he was going to the chopper. Remember, you remember Chopper talk? - I did. - And make the questions that he wanted to take. So if you're going to criticize her, then perhaps you should criticize him, or he should understand that it goes both ways. Now tell me where, where's the lie? - There's no lie that you have told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. - And nothing but the damn truth. Okay, so here's what we're going to talk about. We're going to talk about the first interview, also historic Black voter registration that I want to discuss with Latasha, and America's political gender divide, and we're going to hear from a lot of people. So as I mentioned at the top of the show, Kamala Harris, Minnesota Governor Tim Walts, they're going to sit down for their first joint interview tomorrow night with my friend, Dana Bash, because there's been all this mountain criticism, right? About her not taking interviews since July, since her reelection bid in July. But now that the Vice President is great to an interview, Republicans have found a new reason to attack her, Latasha. This is from, I hate to play this, but I think people should know, you tell me what you think after, but this is from former Bush official, Scott Jennings, last night, it was on CNN. - The line now going to be, well, why isn't she doing it by herself? - Yeah, I do think people are going to bring that up. Look, I have great confidence in Dana, and CNN to do this. I think it's incredibly weak. Weak sauce to show up with your running mate, the fact that they don't have enough confidence in her to let her sit herself, the actual top of the ticket, and do a single interview. In fact, I think the hand-ring and the gyrations over this, over the last month, show a troubling lack of confidence in her political ability, which also makes you wonder as a voter, well, what kind of president would you be, if this kind of a small time decision, can we do an interview or not? What does that look like for your decision-making process, so on? Yes, I think Republicans are gonna think it's pretty weak to show up with effectively someone to take up half the time. - Okay, so let me just say this, all right, just before you answer this. For the record, Donald J. Trump has sat for joint interviews with J.D. Vance. He is sat for a joint interview with Mike Pence. Mitt Romney sat for a joint interview with Paul Ryan. Nothing new, a very longstanding practice, and yet, when Kamala Harris does it, these men call it weak sauce. And I also wanna push back on the notion that Republicans say that Harris is not taking questions from the press or talking policy, because this is objectively not true. I'm gonna play something on that in a little bit, but weak sauce, do you think it's weak sauce? Should she have sat down by herself? - To watch that clip, I don't even really wanna give space to even respond to that. To watch that one clip, the level of racism and sexism, like think about choice of words. It's interesting that he used the word that part of what they do is to try to undermine, particularly with women around our ability and to place it and to paint this picture that we're incompetent, right? And so in this space around her leadership, that in some way, her showing up with her mate, her running mate is in competence, rather than perhaps she has a different leadership style, but perhaps unlike Donald J. Trump, she actually listens and believes that you can listen to people and get wise counsel. - Or she's not afraid of having someone next to her because she's not afraid of being outshown by someone. - Oh my gosh. - If you didn't have to listen to her, but enter in the entire time. - Absolutely, perhaps her ego is strong enough and big enough that she can actually have her running mate and really not feel any kind of way. So I think that is very reflective of a kind of leader that is confident, a kind of leader who actually believes in listening and the input of others in having wise counsel. Number one, the second part that I wanna raise at a word that jumped out to me and just like disturbed my spirit because we're seeing it over and over again, out of all of the words that he chose to use, he uses the word gyration, right? There's an attempt to over-sexualize her in this space as we see with women all the time to really create and attach us to words like weak, to attach us to words that's really around like a sexual or physical behavior. Like that word was completely out of place just now in that clip, but he used that because what we're seeing across the country is we're actually seeing these used strategically being used to describe Kamala or to put her in such a light around the diminish her around being a woman and to give this air of she has some kind of, she's a loose woman, which we all know what that, where that derives from. So it's really interesting that what I see is over and over again, I see the talking points and the strategy of the Republicans. - Yeah, by the way, Louise, who's in the Morales, who's in the chat, this is live, this is not on tape, so you can ask whatever you want. And by the way, Latasha, our viewers, our subscribers are loving you, they're saying speak the truth. Okay, a lot of people are mad but then that network as well, Sandra Kelly said, won't work sucks, so I'm not gonna say that. But I finally catch a live show says Claudette, yes, you're live, we're live at five every day, at least we try to be. Okay, so listen, I think that you're right, I didn't pick up, I'm glad that you as a woman picked up on that because I would have never picked up on the gyration thing, that sort of weak sauce thing I picked up on, I'm not sure what that meant. So anyways, there you go. So what I said, I need to push back too because objectively this is not true that she's, that she's, you know, can't answer questions because this is Harris, this is at a press gaggle, this is just over a little week ago, a little bit of a week ago, watch this. - I'm gonna help you write some economic policies last week. - Yeah. - Can you explain how you're gonna pay for those? Can you give us a sense of what are their policies and what are they available? - Sure, well, I mean, you just look at it in terms of what we are talking about, for example, around children and the child tax credit and extending the EITC. That, it's at $6,000 for the first year of a child's life. The return on that investment in terms of what that will do and what it will pay for will be tremendous. We've seen it when we did it in the first year of our administration. We reduced top, obviously by over 50%. So that's a lot of the work. And then what we're doing in terms of the tax credits, we know that there's a great return on an investment. When we increase homeownership in America, what that means in terms of increasing the tax base, not to metric property tax base, what that does to fund schools, again, return on investment. I think it's a mistake for any person who talks about public policy to not critically evaluate how you measure the return on investment. And when you are strengthening neighborhoods, strengthening communities, and in particular the economy of those communities and investing in a broad-based economy, everybody benefits and it pays for itself in that way. - Okay, this seems like she was afraid there and it seems like she answered. I mean, listen, you're out there talking to the people. You know these policies. You know about the child tax credit. Many people are interested in it. Did she stutter or was she, is there, did you find anything wrong with that? - I think she answered the question. I mean, she's on, the woman is on a campaign trail. I think she answered the question. I think that we wanna take very complex, complicated kind of policy pieces and we're gonna boil them down as much as we can to give the kind of opportunity to speak to them so that Americans can learn it. But I mean, to learn more about it. But here we are like in this space that I actually think that she addressed it. And I do think that the child tax credit was a major, major, big piece of around policy that we need, that we know that it cut child property in half, that's done, that's a pretty big deal. - Well, Tasha, could you make this make sense? Have you ever heard Donald Trump answer questions? Have you ever heard the things that come out of his mouth? I like my heroes that are not captured. Making fun of a New York Times reporter saying to me about Meghan Kelly, she had blood coming out of her wherever. And you get nerve to criticize what Kamala Harris, the vice president might say or has said on it. How can you, there is no comparison to any, I don't know any political figure that I can compare the stupidity that has come out of Donald Trump's mouth. - You know, I think that these are the very people who are defending him, sorry. - Yeah, no, those are the very people that are defending him, that's why we know it's not real. Like at the end of the day, this is to find ways to literally be able to come after a candidate. And so they're trying to find ways to actually nitpick like death by a thousand cuts. The truth of the matter is, you can expect an answer for Trump, his answer is me. It's me, it's me, it's me, it's me, it's me, right? That's the only answer that you will get from Donald Trump. - Really, you think he's selfish? Donald Trump, is he really? Are you saying he's a megalomaniac? - I'm being sarcastic as you know. So Latasha, listen, I wanna pivot this conversation a little bit and talk about something that you were very well versed in, and I'm talking about voter turnout and voter enthusiasm. Because in addition to calling the sitting vice president and saying weak sauce and saying gyrations, as you mentioned last night, Scott Jennings also said this about her campaign watch. - Gannick, the entire Kamala Harris campaign has been organic. And so now what, organic, this is the literal most manufactured presidential campaign ever. She didn't even run. And she, it's the opposite of what Gannick. - Can I ask you one question? Like you've been a part of a lot of campaigns, right? - Right. - A ton of campaigns. - And in everyone, how many campaigns in your manufacturing, have you been able to manufacture 400,000 volunteers or $540 million? Or how? - I mean, the car, preach, it's manufactured. What was not manufactured about, I hate to keep going back to this, Latasha. But what was not manufactured about someone who pretended to be a smart businessman on television, or whose entire persona was made up from a reality television show. So that's manufactured. But also it is real because he did become president of the United States. So regardless of how he got into the race, he did become president of the United States, regardless of how Kamala Harris got into the race, it is real, she is raising money. And by the way, she is beating him in the polls. - You know, the bottom line is what we're manufacturing, what's being manufactured right now? - Right. - Right. That is what being manufactured. What's being manufactured is when you push too hard, when you go after people, when you try to take away the rights of women that have complete autonomy and authority over their bodies, when you actually align yourself with right nationalists, when you create policies to try to really dissuade people from voting to support voter suppression, when you show up to places, if you're dishonest, that all of those things create a certain kind of consequence. And what the consequence, people in this country, what we're showing, their people have been activated, they want an alternative, they are not, they're under no circumstances do they want Donald Trump, they see her as a valuable option around that. They see her as someone that is more reflective of American values and inclusivity. And ultimately, what is being manufactured right now is hope in this country. What's being manufactured right now is that this campaign is manufacturing all kinds of positions that because they don't have a real argument, a real sustainable argument of why Donald Trump needs to be in office and why Kamala Harris is not, or Vice President Kamala Harris, is not a strong candidate and candidate. - Mm-hmm. - So what do they do? They've shown it, they make it up. - So in our poll, we have a poll that's up now and I would love for you guys to participate. And it says, is Vice President Harris talking enough about policy, is Vice President Harris talking enough about policy? The poll is up, almost 400 of you have voted. So continue to vote on that. And then I will tell you what the results are. Also, please hit the thumbs up. We like that, like and subscribe because you know that affects the algorithm. It keeps us on the air, talking to people and highlighting and platforming as they say, folks like the great, the great Latasha Brown. Okay, so Latasha, this caught my eye this morning. I wanna play, this is a portion of a CBS News report. It's a sound bite that is a little longer than the others, but I think the audience will find it absolutely fascinating, fascinating, and it's right up your alley. So here it is, watch. And we may stop it early, here it is. - Tracking something really interesting going on right now, it's a surge in voter registration in key groups ahead of the November election. Among young black women, registration is up more than 175%. You heard that right, more than 175% in 13 states. That's compared to the same time in 2020. This according to the Data Firm Target Smart. Registration has also increased among young Latinas and black Americans. Tom Bonier joins us now. He's a senior advisor at Target Smart. Tom, it's great to see you, thanks for coming in. 175%, can that possibly be right? If you must have triple checked this or many more times than that. - You're right to repeat the number because I have more than triple checked it. It's incredibly unusual to see changes in voter registration that are anywhere close to this. I mean, to remind people, 175% is almost tripling of registration rates among this specific group. You just don't see that sort of thing happen in elections normally. - And what does that tell us if anything about either enthusiasm, attention, propensity to vote for these newly registered participants? - Tell us a lot. The reason that we look at this voter registration data is because the polls won't only tell us so much. The polls tell us how people are gonna vote. They don't tell us if or who is going to vote. It's a big question. The best indicator of that is the actions that people are taking, number one, registering to vote. Someone who says, "I wanna participate in this election." So as we've seen these questions of which side has the advantage and intensity and enthusiasm, we look for changes in voter registration like this. People who are newly registered to vote are much more likely to vote on election day. So it not only means that there's a bigger pool of voters for either campaign to draw from and turn out on election day, but generally it's an indicator of a broader enthusiasm among that specific group. So people who are already registered to vote who look like those voters who are registering to vote tend to vote at higher rates when you see those surges in registration. - Got it. Okay, thank you guys for that. Natasha, 175% in 13 states up from 2020. And then I don't know if you saw that up there, which you probably know, black women in general, up 98.4% and then young and Latino, young Latino and black Americans up as well. Those were the numbers that they were concerned about when President Biden was in the race, correct? And now they're up more than 100%. - You know, I think we have to recognize, I think there are three things that have taken place. I think one, I think there's been a shift in the environment because I think people feel they feel a pathway to victory, that they feel a sense of hope. I will give a personal example of my niece. I have a niece that I was trying to get engaged in this election cycle. She was very upset about what was happening in Gaza. She actually would only refer to President Biden as genocide, Joe. And she and I would just bump heads about this election and participate in this election. And she had decided she wasn't going to, Trump was too far for her, but she was just not going to vote. She didn't know if she was going to vote on that. On the day which Biden, President Biden was set that he was supporting, that he was going to not run and he was supporting Kamala Harris, she actually called me and said, "I'm going to volunteer, what can I do?" That's significant. That life was a temperature change just for me. For someone who was not even interested in voting this election cycle, to go from, for years I've tried to get her engaged, to call me, this 23 year old, to call me and say, not only am I going to vote, how do I get down, how do I participate, how do I volunteer? You see those numbers all across the board, not just in, you don't see those numbers, just in terms of people who are registering, we're seeing an uptick in volunteers, we're seeing an uptick in people or find it out information, even vote.org where you see the numbers have, I think they've increased on vote.org by 700% of what they normally get this time. It is reflective of theirs, hope and enthusiasm. I also think that there's a connectivity to an issue. I think part of the reason why women is that, because women do feel like we're our rights are in attack, that Roe v. Wade, when you look at the election, the history of the election since that overturning, that that issue is a very important issue around reproductive rights and reproductive justice for us. And I think that's driving it as well. I think there's a third issue that is driving it was interesting, I was sharing today, I went grocery shopping and I went and I got some milk and the carton of milk was like almost $6, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Like I literally put the milk back, really did and I really needed it. And I had to think for a second, I was like, wait, wait, wait, what is happening? And so what's interesting, I think what Vice President Kamala Harris is doing, is she's actually talking about the economy different. What we, or normally what we hear is all the economy, what we heard from even when Biden was running, the economy is doing well, unemployment rates are down, the GDP is doing well, all of those things as indicators. Every day people and particularly young people are not judging it by that. They're trying to, they're saying something is happening, costs are going up. And when I think about economy, I think about two things. I think about opportunity and costs. And she's actually been speaking of that. She's been talking about price gouging and being able to do something around price gouging. She's been talking about expanding opportunities. She's been talking even on her HBCU tour about literally being able to provide extended opportunities for people to have higher education opportunities. I'm saying that because I think that is part of the message, that is not just the fact that it's a woman that's running although I certainly think that that's made a difference of who she is, but it's also I think some of the things that she's saying of what people care about. People like to see themselves at candidates. The fact that she worked at McDonald's, I had one of my friends, daughters, called me and said, "Do you know she used to work at McDonald's just like me?" Like, and so there's this connection that there's this idea that she can identify with as a working class person, as a college student, as a struggling person, that I gotta work at McDonald's to take care of myself or to put me through school. Other people can connect to that. And so that in itself makes it more, the connection stronger and is more believable and people feel like that she will have a sense of understanding what everyday folks are going through. - Wow, you had a six dollars for, I was gonna say, where were you holding? - Probably six dollars, what's happening? - You weren't at all these, I mean, come on, but yeah, $5.99, $6 for a carton of milk in some places. Walmart, 350, I mean, wow, so there you go. Listen, I wanna talk about that 'cause I said, I was on MSNBC, not last night, the night before, and I said two things can be true, the economy can be firing by most metrics, but then if prices are up, right, people feel that they have less money in their wallets and less money in their household because they are paying higher prices, right, and their price gouging and all of that, so all of that can be true. But I also think that there are a number of factors behind this surge that you're seeing now. One of the biggest has been Harris's phenomenal digital strategy, I don't know if you've seen it, but they're on fire, Kamala HQ is on fire, the memes are everywhere, young people love them. I did only social media content for the convention and it was firing at all cylinders, I've never had so much engagement, I wanna play her official, somebody from her official campaign account that was just posted yesterday watches. ♪ I told him that the job he's currently seeking ♪ ♪ I used one of those black jobs, those black jobs ♪ ♪ It's an unserious man ♪ ♪ One of those black jobs, those black jobs ♪ ♪ One of those ♪ ♪ You're gonna tell him ♪ (laughing) - So, listen, it may be-- - I posted that myself on TikTok. - I did, you know, I think it's a couple of things, even related to that, that one, I think people are getting ownership of it, you know, they try to weaponize her lab. For years, they tried to weaponize her lab. She's owning it, people are owning it and saying, "Yes, we like it." Even the ad I saw there was a negative ad that the Republicans put out, where she was dancing at a party that she had at her home. Actually, I was there, it was actually a really quite fun party, but anyway, that she had at her home around celebrating hip-hop. And it's interesting. - I remember that in "The Tusa Pants," who was she dancing to? - "The Tusa Pants." What was the song, it was a San Francisco rapper. Anyway, so I'll think about it. - I can't even tell, but anyway, I love that clip. What they are really underestimated is they really underestimated. They always go a step too far. They believe that their worldview is the worldview for the rest of us, and it is not. And so, part of literally putting fun and joy back in politics, right, seeing that she's a real human being, that she dances, that she laughs, that she's pleasant, that she can take care of business at the same time, people actually appreciate that, right? They may not appreciate that. They see that as something negative, but even it was really interesting. I saw that post, and people were tearing him down on that post. They were actually saying, because I think the caption said, "What you do, you want this person "to be your president?" And it just shows a clip of her dancing, literally down the line. Probably 85% of all of the responses were like, "Absolutely, hell yeah, we want, "that's what we want, we want a president "that actually can literally live "that really is reflective of the public." And so, I think her campaign has been brilliant. The ads have been really brilliant. I think the campaign has done a really good job in terms of the social media, but what's interesting is organically, people at social media, content creators are having a ball. They're having a field day. - Yeah, I had fun creating content, especially around all of this stuff. Thank you, Shakira. Shakira said it was vibrant thing, but it's vibrant. I think that they were saying it's about it. - It is, it's vibrant thing, that's not San Francisco, that's not... - It's not? - No, that's your main domain. - Is it Jermaine? - Yes. - 'Cause, oh, she answered a question about a San Francisco rapper in one of the things. But it was vibrant thing, and... - I know, you know, I'm sure that, come on. (laughing) - And I saw Jermaine the other night. Don't tell him I said that. - I will tell him to do this. - But I thought that that was great for her to be doing that. And I don't know why people are making fun of that. I like her. - And young people too. I think what they're not understanding is that young voters have now eclipsed in terms of their numbers. And they're looking like the Swifties. Like the Swifties for Harris have just been blowing up. They've raised over $100,000 in one phone call. Like young people are actually taking ownership of this campaign, they're using their creativity, they're lifting pieces up, and it's actually making a difference. - Someone, folks in the chat are saying that's Q-Tip from Tribe Call Quest. That is not right. - Oh, that's cool. Oh, well, I'm not kidding. - Hey, man, am I wrong? - We both ain't cool. Go ahead. - So both was ain't cool. Well, I know some. - You Google, you Google. (laughing) You can Google it, we'll figure it out. - That is two tips on. All right, sorry, mother. (laughing) - So listen, I think there's another factor behind the surge in Republicans. - Thank you, Connor. (laughing) - I get all the Texas like, that's Q-Tip, you should go, but you're right, you're right, all right, all right. - Well, they will check you in this chat. - They will check you in this chat. - And I love them for it. So thank you. - Yes. - Aaron Thompson says, Q-Tip, exclamation, boys. - That's right, Q-Tip. - Q-Tip says, you're ever in Washington. All right, we got it, we got it, we got it. Em Moi says, no Q-Tip. All right, we got his Q-Tip, y'all, we love you. Thank you for keeping us honest in the chat. That's right here proves my point, done. That's right here proves my point. This is what I'm saying, the way that we communicate, the way that we're engaged, the people that are engaged in this campaign would know that the song is Q-Tip, right? And so that makes more friends. That is actually what I think in terms of popular culture and hip hop culture and those of us in this generation, what is the generation X and Z? And I think now it's generation Afa or something. At the end of the day, all of those things matter. The fact that her song, her theme song, is freedom by Beyonce? - Yes. - That in itself says something. That says that you've got one set of candidates that literally represent the old America, like the old still, you know? And then you've got another set of candidates that represent like this new American, like this new kind of ticket, it's a new thing. Like my grandmother used to always say, people say, "Baby, God is doing a new thing." So, I mean, I think people are saying that there's a new thing that is being developed right now. - God is doing a new thing again. (overlapping chatter) - On Sunday. And by the way, let me check y'all in the thing saying it's a vibrant thing with a B, it's not. It's vibrant V-I-V, not V-I-V. (overlapping chatter) All right. Don't come for us, it must be for you. Okay, so, I'm just, everybody, it's all love. So, everybody, don't get all, everybody. Okay, so listen, I think that there's another major factor behind this surge, is that Republicans have just gotten so hateful towards women, Latasha. The open, the naked misogyny of some conservatives running for office is just galling. This is Minnesota Senator, Senate candidate Royce White, who's now been endorsed by both Donald Trump and Minnesota, and the Minnesota GOP, watch this. What does this say, culture issues, as a code word for, rube, white, rural, the Christian heterosexual male, nationalist, you know, that are just focused on their wives being too mouthy, sir. - Yeah, well, look, let's just be frank. Women have become too mouthy. - Okay, so let me see, I'm supposed to read something here. And so the US Senator, is it Royce White, says he's not going to bother going after the votes. Oh, he says he's not going to bother after, going after the votes of white suburban women to win swing voters, because he's not cucked, and is writing them off as already being Democrats. Yeah. - Yeah, so, obviously they don't understand what it means to say a once go on. I'm like, just like my, my, my, my mother would say, bless them, just bless them. - Oh, bless them, Mark. - Just bless them, Lord, just bless them a little hard, 'cause at the end of the day, women can show you better than we can tell you. And so that is especially what is happening now. It is not by accident that a woman is at the top of the ticket, women actually, women, and I think even our communities, as we see that, you know, as we hear that, all that does every time, every time that they make those comments, what it does is it activates another woman somewhere, or a set of women somewhere. So, yes, we are, we are operating with a different kind of a level of thinking and focus, those are distraction. Those are, you know, poor little men, never say it, an upset, 'cause they don't have anybody in the balls of control, so. - Maybe I should have asked you, why are women so mouthy? (laughing) You would have slapped me through the screen, right? So, listen, it's so funny, it's actually almost hilarious, it's interesting, the one thing, and some people may really get upset with that. I mean, it's worth, it's extremely disrespectful, but it's so, it is so asinine and so immature, that at the end of the day, like every time they say those things, even when Steve Van was talking, I was like, what you talking about Willis? Like, I'm sitting there listening to him, and I'm like, you just going through all of these little pieces, and so, like, it's, it's, they're talking to each other, and then maybe if they vote for one another and each other, they can be satisfied, but ultimately, being that women make the majority of this country, that literally that's a really good chance, that you may not win if you keep coming for women. - Yeah, I mean, it's so, so ignorant. Let me just say-- - That's ignorant, it's awesome. - Just real quick, I'm going to get to the poll. It says, is Vice President Harris talking enough about policy 70s? Thank you, almost a thousand of you have voted. Thank you, I really appreciate it. And you say, 77% say yes, the perfect amount. 21% say not enough, and she's talking too much about policy says 2%. So thank you guys, I appreciate that. That is a very interesting poll, and I'm glad that's-- - Can you say the answer? Can you say the answer? I'm sorry. - You want to hear the results? Okay, over a thousand people have voted, and it says, is Vice President Harris talking enough about policy? It was when I read it last time, it was 79%, 78% say yes, the perfect amount. 20% say not enough, and 2% says she's talking too much about policy. So 78, overwhelmingly, they say she's talking enough about policy, the perfect amount, all right? - There you have it. - All right, got it, good. Okay, so here's what I want, I want to say this, because after we had Royce White, guess what Donald Trump is doing, all right? And he's posting on Truth Social, after that, he says, a vile, disgusting misogynist mirror. He has, claiming that Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris engaged in sexual favors to get ahead in their political careers, which is a debunked conspiracy theory. What the? - Well, you know, done, you know, I like to people, I like to say this, for all of this talk from Donald Trump around Kamala sleeping her way to the top, he slept his way to the bottom. So what's the issue? Like, ultimately, when you see the felony convictions that he has, the sexual assault charges, you just slip yourself to the wrong way, right? And so don't keep that behavior on others. It is, that's very indicative of how men, particularly, insecure men, attack women, that at the end of the day that he wants to, we're seeing this expand all across the country. Like, we're seeing, with them, right? When you don't have anything legitimate to bring a legitimate concern, what you do, is you try to go to the same old sexist tropes. And one of those tropes is literally trying to defile a woman by literally trying to over-sexualize her, or to put a smear on her and her character in some way, that in some way, because your inability to be able to see that there are women that are far, far smarter than you, there are women that are much more prepared for you, and there are black women that are beating you on all fronts, but I'm just gonna stay there for, I'm just gonna leave that right there for now. That ultimately, the only thing that, I think, one of the strategies has been to actually try to create a smear on her character named Taggerty, and find ways to actually over-sexualize her, and to frame it, now it's her and Hillary Clinton, I mean, that's the first that I've heard from that. That's really, that's quite interesting, but I don't think that is, once again, every single time he puts that kind of information out, I think what he has done is he has evangelized 10 other women that are gonna vote against him. And it we're from New York. - You know who we, you know, Jasmine Crockett, and Jasmine is gonna be on the show later on in the week. Jasmine Crockett has a few choice words to say about Donald Trump today. Watch this. - Well, John, real quick, Congresswoman, before I let you go, do you think Donald Trump shows up? September 10? - No, but if he does show up, he is about to get his butt handed to him. So I'm here for it either way. He can go and cower in a corner, or he can show up and be lit on fire. Either way, I'm good. What she's saying there is he's got a big mouth, right? He's big, bad and bold on social media, but then she doesn't believe he's gonna show up 'cause he keeps complaining about microphones and such. And talking, he'd rather go to the gutter talking about whether she's black enough or who she slept with or hasn't slept with in her career. - I mean, that's what you do when you don't really stand for anything, when you know that you're losing, when you know that you're a desperate man. I mean, she told him right here in Atlanta, and he asked something to say to her, comes to her in her face, and he has it. And I like her, I don't know if he can wheel. And if he does, I think that she is adequately prepared to do what she does best. - So you heard what Royce White said and you heard what he's saying, and Jasmine Crockett is saying he's gonna get his butt whipped. They're trying to pretend that they don't care about people voting or certain demographic, but they certainly seem to care about, even though they're trying to push women away. They certainly, the Trump campaign certainly seems to be paying attention and trying to claw back some of the votes from a certain demographic. And because one that is overwhelmingly supportive of Vice President Kamala Harris, watch this new ad from the Trump votes. - Hi, my name is Silo. - I'm Karen Watson. I'm Yolanda Johnson from Georgia. - This is Bebe Diamond from New York City. - I'm Dana Gayler. - And I'm from Tampa, Florida. - I live in Haysown, Maryland. - Out here in Maricopa County. - Kalamazoo County, Michigan. - I am a proud African immigrant, living in Florida. - I'm from the great state of New Jersey. - I'm Angelina from Philly. In this November, I am not voting for Kamala Harris. - I am not voting for Kamala Harris. - I am not voting for Kamala Harris. - I am not with Mal Harris. - I am not with her. - I am not with her. - I am not with Kamala Harris. - I'm not with Kamala. - I am not for Kamala. - I am for Donald Trump. - I am not with Kamala. - I am not with her. She is not with me. - I support President Trump and the economic policies our country experienced under his leadership as our 45th president. - President Trump will support our law enforcement agencies and fund them appropriately. - Donald Trump made me proud to be an American. - I'm with Donald J. Trump. - We need a leader who can make America great again. - Trump puts Americans first and you always will. - We need Donald Trump. - I and millions of other black Americans will cast my vote for Donald J. Trump. - I will proudly cast my vote for Donald J. Trump as our next president. - Let's make America great again. - So, let me say the first thing is he ain't on a black people to help him put that together because it's clear there were no black people that helped him put that together. The flag in the background, say her name right, I'm just like listen, sisters flex a different kind of way. Love those sisters wish him well that were on that. I guess he got all five of them. He got all 20 of the black women that said they're not gonna vote for her. He got all 20 of them on a commercial, right? At the end of the day, it was scripted. There is nothing about that that was indigenous. Matter of fact, we would, the response that you and I just had, that is the response of black Americans gonna have. We are going to see that in lab because we're looking at it and we see the fingerprints of nobody. You didn't have a single black person on the team? You snatched some people up, you paid a couple of folks, you got your flag, you put them on there, I said, you want to do this. I ain't even mad 'cause I hope that it's gonna be a vote against them. I mean, I do have to say that I did a road trip and there were, I did encounter lots of people, mostly black men, but there were some black women as well, saying that they were gonna vote for Donald Trump. There are some out there. Oh, there are, right. I'm just saying 95% of the rest of us are not over there and I'm 95 beats five every time. So I'm clear about that. I am clear of those women who voted for them, like, just bless them, right, I'm saying. But I'm very clear about three things after watching at one. He did not have a black person on his production team at all. I could go through and point through how I know that. Secondly, that the women that voted, none of them actually spoke from the heart. If you watch them, they were literally reading a script. So I'm not even sure if they're real voters or not, or they were just actors on that piece, right? And so the point of the matter is yes. There will be, unfortunately, there will be some people that will vote for Donald Trump. And yes, some of them will be black folks. And some of them will be black women. What I do know for sure is that while that 5% he can play with that and make commercials or whatever he wants, 95% of us are gonna go a certain kind of way. And that is, we're going to vote for Kamala. We're going to vote for Kamala Vice President, Kamala Harris. What does my friend Bakari say? All skin folk and kin folk is what he said. So we had a whole commercial around that last election cycle. And it worked? It worked quite well, actually. So listen, let's talk about that because you said that. No, I don't want to say anything negative about those sisters, because I don't know those sisters. So I'm not saying anything negative about them at all. You're just saying 95% of black women are for her. That's what I am saying. It's the best overwhelming, vast majority of black women and men. The only other group that votes as a solid block at the same level as black women are black men. So we've got to dispel this idea that black men are somewhere being being led off by Trump. You think we don't know who Trump is? Ultimately, Trump is actually, he's irritated. Like the conversation and commitment are two different things. So talking to people and they're saying, oh, they're talking about Trump, that's one thing. A commitment to it, show me. We've not seen that. Yeah, it was eye-opening to me, though, the number of men. And to my team, the number of black men who said that they were supporting Donald Trump. I mean, just unprompted, they did. But listen, even though, and my other question was, will white women show up this time? Pulling ahead of the 2024 race show, signs of political gender divide is widened to its furthest point in American history. This recent New York Times, Sienna College poll in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, revealed that 55% of registered men support Trump, compared to 39% of women, a staggering 16-point difference. The time Sienna poll conducted last week in Arizona, Georgia and Nevada and North Carolina, likewise found the exact same difference. America is rapidly becoming a gender polarized country, and it could prove to be a major problem for societal stability. According to Pew, 71% of young Democratic women, they will never date or marry someone who votes Republican. What do you think of this? This sort of political gender divide, not sort of gender divide. Now, that last one, that last stat you just shared, I've not heard that one. That might be a game changer right there. That's a game changer. But I think a couple of things. I think that it's not just the presidential election this time, that reproductive rights and reproductive justice is a big issue for women. Not necessarily just about abortion, but really around who has control and authority to tell us what to do with our bodies. That's a big issue for women. And what we've seen is it's activated women across the board. And so white women in particular, what I've seen is I've actually seen more energy and more organizing in that community. And I've seen in even in elections, even with Hillary Clinton election, I do want to remind people that Hillary got more votes than Trump. It wasn't like she got slaughtered. She got more votes than Trump. It was just where she got the votes in terms of electoral college. But aside from that, I do think that there's a multitude of issues that are in office that are in play. One, that Donald Trump has actually served. So now you've got a person that's running that we know him and we know his policies and we know how dangerous and damaging he can be. I think that's a factor that works against him. Secondly, he's not coming in this position as a place of strength. This is a man that has numerous, a numerous felony convictions, but also is literally looking at some other elements himself from some other cases as well. In addition to that, you have a candidate. You've got a strong candidate that I think the attitudes of seeing a woman as president that shifted the political landscape of actually being able to see a woman in the White House, we've seen her in the White House for the last three and a half years in the role of vice president. But it's not a far stretch for us to actually see a woman being in the White House. I think all of those factors are at a play as well. Interesting. So I found it interesting too. 71% of young Democratic women say that they will never date or marry someone who votes Republican. So let's see. Let's read some of these because you found it surprising. I did too. Ms. Ladybug says, "No, if he's Republican." Beth Beyer says, "No way." Cindy D says, "No." Sarah Habib says, "Don, I dated a Republican once, it doesn't work." This go ball glitter says, "No, I don't sleep with the enemy." I'm really shocked at that number. Wow. Yeah, let's see. Say it to her face, that's something else. "We don't share the same values, unequally yoked," says Jen Owens. Wow. "As long as he kept it to himself," says Sandra Kelly. Huh. Interesting. That's a really interesting one for me. You know, I don't know if you know the story about Liberia, how the women in Liberia actually literally stop mourning the country. Right. And so let me tell you, there's a powerful woman like people. They call it the power of something about that. Can we say that? We don't want to estimate the power of the woman. And the power of women, like that is a game changer. I'm actually shocked that that number will be that high. Like I would never marry someone in the public. That's interesting. Wow. Latasha, you're out there doing the work. Do you have the bus this time of the RV? What are you doing? Absolutely. We've got buses. We've got a fleet of buses. We have the Blackness bus in America that we are on our bus tour right now as we speak in Ohio. We're going to 12 states in the next, no, 15 states. We're doing 15 states. We are headed to North Carolina. You know, this is a really interesting race because as you talk about-- Gosh, I'm just going to step away and sneeze. Go on, sorry. Yes. So as you talked about this election cycle, what we know is Georgia and North Carolina are in play now. And so, you know, possibly even Florida. Florida, which is a race that was not really considered a toss-up state, I think because reproductive rights, there's a reproductive rights issue on the ballot. You know, Florida is going to be interested in the watch done, my words. But North Carolina and Georgia, I think, are really, really in play this election cycle. There is a-- in North Carolina, I'm just going to say there's a net that's running. The lieutenant governor is just a massive mayor. Yeah, we know, we know, we know. We're worried about Georgia though because there's some shenanigans going on. There's some shenanigans going on, right? You know, that's why part of what we're working on in other groups, like Georgia Stand Up and other groups throughout the state, whether the People's Agenda, Georgia Coalition, the People's Agenda, and others that are working together in the state that we've got to have an overwhelming increase in the turnout. Now, what we want is we want to so overwhelm the vote that people, when they make a decision where they show up to vote that we actually shift Georgia. Now listen, Georgia's a state that they didn't believe that we could get two Democratic senators, yet one, but to get two Democratic senators. And then certainly this is also the state that mainstream media was like, oh, and now you've got this Herschel Walker, who was this football player that was running. Oh my gosh. Who wins? Who wins? Who wins? Who wins? Who wins? Right. So I just want to remind people, and what did we do? We came out and we beat them. And once again, in the election, the runoff election was happening in January. So it's not a matter of the numbers here. When you look at the demographics in Georgia, you've got literally, it's a much more diverse Georgia. You've got like, you've got a younger electorate. And so really, the numbers can be on our side. We just got to mobilize. Our piece of what we can't take for granted is we've got to mobilize. But absolutely, Georgia is winnable. And we are in play. LaTasha Brown, you're the best at Georgia. I mean, if Georgia turns, or if Georgia goes blue, if North Carolina goes blue, is Florida in play? You know, it's interesting. I actually think there's some possibility. You know, if I'm playing spade, you know, I'll put out, I would count my books. I would count Georgia, North Carolina. As a possible. Yes, Florida would be a possible. It would be it would be Georgia. It would be a possible. That'd be two and a possible. We all want to play space with you. I'm gonna have to come travel with you. Oh, listen, I take I grant no mercy. Just you get to just got to be ready to come with it now. Explain your t-shirt before we go. So put a woman in charge. You want a good friend of mine made these t-shirts? I do think that the best place for a woman is in the house, the White House. And so after all of these years of literally when we talk about women's suffrage at this moment, I really do believe that we're in this space, that we have to have a more reflective democracy, people that we have to have a more representative and reflective democracy. How do we are more the majority of this country? And we in 2024, we've not had a woman as president, right? Like how how do we get here? But I'm glad that we're here at this moment. And what I firmly believe is that, you know, women are going to do what we need to do, the women and those that love us and our brothers and our non-gender conforming family. We're going to we actually have a vision of a different kind of America. One that we deserve. I love that a woman's place is in the house, the White House. The White House. Thank you, Latasha. Best of luck to you, please. I really enjoyed our conversation. I missed your face and your presence. You're the best. I know I need you too. So I will be back on liminalad. All right. Talk to you later. Bye, Latasha. That was a talk to Brown. And a lot of you in the chat, we're asking who is this incredible lady who is on the show? And that is Latasha Brown. She's a renowned community organizer, political strategist. And she is the co-founder of Black Voters Matter, an organization who's get out the vote efforts, literally turn the tide on many elections. The Alabama State Senate in 2017, but also on the race in 2020. I spoke to her a lot. Okay. So here we are as we and I read some of your things. Apologies Don and Tim. Hi, apologies Don to the Lady Burger. What are you apologizing to me and Tim for? Latasha is the best, says John Young's. Thank you for supporting independent media, everyone, by the way. Thank you, Norman Sowards, Sowards for supporting independent media. Also, thank you. Let's, Norman. And then there's somebody else who is supporting independent media. Henry Mars. Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. It means a lot to us that you do that. And we don't request or ask that you do it, but thank you so much. So that was great. Look, we got a lot covered there. Got a lot covered. Here's the book again. If you know, I've been like leaving books and hiding places in New York City, and I'm going to leave them. And I've let, I've left them in other places. You'll have to figure out exactly where I left them. So maybe there's one in your town. But let's see, I want to read, at least every day I said it was going to read something to you. So why don't I'm going to start today, because we have some good engagement of the folks who are in the day. So my book is a, it's called, I once was lost, my search for God in America. Okay, so bear with me on this. I know you guys love me reading to you. This is story time. And I dedicate the book. I said with love and gratitude to mom, mommy, and the matriarchs of Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church. And thus, I start and I write about this. I don't know if I can read about this for long because I'll start crying. The prologue is to my sister. And I start out by saying a letter to Lisa. And I say, hey, big sis. My sister died suddenly in 2018 at the accidental drowning. And I say, hey, big sis, how you doing up there? We miss you, but we're learning to live with it. Mom and Ema and I spent a lot of prayers on one another. We lift each other up the way that you and Ema and I did every night when we were kids. At my weariest, I close my eyes and go back to that ritual. Mommy always kept the door open between the room you shared with Ema and the room I shared with mommy. I could hear you and Ema as we all knelt in the dark next to our beds. That hard floor beneath your knees. That's part of it, for sure. Bowing your head acknowledges how the long day has humbled you. Holding your hands together makes you stop flailing around. You settle down and say your prayers. First, we said the Lord's Prayer, our Father who art in heaven and so on. It covers all the bases. Praise the name, trust the divine. Give me that daily bread. Forgive me as I forgive others, banish temptation and evil. Eyes on the coming kingdom now and forever. Amen. And then it goes on. Anyways, that is the beginning of my book. And I hope you will go out and purchase it. Please pre-order it for you, for other people. If there's something going on in your life that you have you're having trouble with or maybe you're in transition, you will find this will help you. Maybe you have some, you're in a dark place in your life where we all have been. I started this book to talk about religion when I was actually at a very good place in my life. I started in 2022. And then as you know, I left CNN, right? And my career and my life suddenly changed. I put this book down and I started, and I didn't start completely over again, but the book became something else. It became much more meaningful. And it actually teaches people how to get through tough times because we all go through tough times, how to do it. I did it very publicly. And so this is just so you know, I'm going to say chapter four is called just as I am. And it says, what are we if we're not in transition? Dead, right? Or dormant at best. Change is hard. But I'm an optimist. So I see the stage of change, I see the stage of change as a state of grace, a plane of pure possibility. When you're in flux, you're like shooting your cat, things could go either way. So you might as well be a cool cat while you ride it out. So anyways, I think you guys will find something in this book. There's something for everyone, especially as it relates to the election. So it's on sale presale. Now you can go online and search for I once was lost my search for God in America, you can go to your favorite bookstore where it's whether it's Barnes and Noble or whatever or go to Amazon. And it's very easy to order on Amazon. So there you go. There it is right now. And there's also a link right now in the top of the chat. Look at that picture. They had a little makeup on, but I don't look that much different. My skin is good. The same as the picture. Okay, so thank you guys. Let's see. Thank you for Storytime, says Cheryl Gibson. Thank you for being a part of my Storytime. I really appreciate that. Don, will you still be doing your podcast if you are hired by cable television? Of course. Now listen, the podcast is on the audio version is on Apple, whatever. This isn't exactly a podcast. It's more of a streaming show, but you can call it whatever you want to call it. Nice picture, Don, says Pema Williams. Thank you. So yes, I will continue with this channel no matter what happens in my life, because I have found a certain sense of autonomy and freedom by being able to do this. I can do and say whatever I want. It is a great platform to have. It is growing by leaps and bounds. Not only is this platform growing, but you should see in my social off the charts, the our TikTok channel. My sister, Ima, who I write about in this book, it has been encouraging me to get on TikTok for years. Our whole family has been laughing at her because she was addicted to TikTok. She's like, she was sent us memes from TikTok all the time, and we would say, could you get off TikTok? And now we're all on TikTok. So she was right. And also my Instagram as well. So go on. It's Don Lemon official, I think, on both Instagram and TikTok. And then the Twitter, if you care to go on Twitter, I know sometimes it's a bit tough, because they can bombard you there. It's just Don Lemon. And then you can look for Don Lemon on Facebook as well, and it's all shared. So thank you guys. I will see you tomorrow. By the way, let me know in the chat or wherever it is, even if it's on social, what should I talk to Jasmine Crockett about? What do you want to know from Jasmine Crockett? We have the great Jasmine Crockett tomorrow. Okay? So Nancy Ramirez, I agree. Great conversation. I enjoyed it. And I enjoyed you guys. Thank you for being part of the elimination. Thank you for being Lemonheads. And I will see you tomorrow. Bye. Thumbs up, by the way. [ Silence ]
