Indict publicly a city elected official without it being signed off by the Attorney General. And the Attorney General of the United States cannot sign off on something that major as a Kwame Kilpatrick or an eric if the President doesn’t know about it. And in this case, the Vice President. When the feds needed to get my record, I have all this documentation. That’s why I can’t wait to do the movie. When the feds needed to sign off for my RICO indictment, they had to send it to Eric Holder. Really? I had to. I didn’t know that.

Yes. They couldn’t just say they could recommend it. They had to send it to D.C. and say, we want to charge this man with RICO. And it was okay by not only Eric Holder, but the President of the United States. Well, how do you know that Kwame? Because Carol in Cheeks Kilpatrick went to the White House. She went to the White House with her pastor from Oak Grove AME Church. She didn’t feel comfortable going by herself. She brought somebody with her and he went in there with her. And they walked up to the President. They talked to the President.

And my mother asked him one question. Do you see what’s happening with my son? He said, yes, I know exactly what’s happening. I know exactly what’s going on. And he turned and walked away. Really? So, absolutely. You’ve got to be kidding me Kwame. Yes. And so when we talk about all of these people, listen, and that may have been something he had to do. Like, I hear black folks say, he had to do that, man. You know he had, you know. Listen, I don’t have no hate in my heart for that man at all.

But I don’t want people to be misguided like it was all roses and carrots. And I shouldn’t be a little hesitant in showering all of this grace upon him. I mean, no, I understand that he had a job to do. That that job included a whole lot of people other than him and other than Eric Holder. And other than the specific prosecutor they sent in here to do it. And what I’m saying, I was a little mayor, I mean, a big guy, but a little mayor in one little city. We’re talking about New York. We’re talking about, I mean, if I can make it there, I can make it anywhere.

We’re not talking about Detroit this time. We’re talking about New York. The entire eyes of the world are on that city. And so when you have Eric Holder, a cop from the neighborhood, I mean, basically, who grows up in his manhood and says, I want to be mayor, and is not the favorite, and comes through the primary and becomes the mayor of the city of New York. From that moment, he raised his hand and said, yes, he’s been under attack. And a lot of it now, because he tried to play with the team on this whole migrant issue, he was one of the people in Washington saying, we got to open the people down south.

He was pounding on them. Yeah, he was. You know, they’re doing all this, got to send the people down south. And Texas said, okay, we’re going to send them to Union. And all of the crisis now is at his doorstep, and the people that he thought were on his team and helping him are the very people now that are stabbing him in the back. Ah, man, I’m going to just tell you, politics seems like the dirtiest game in the world. Listen. The dirtiest game in the world. I tell everybody that I played football my whole life, and football is a contact sport.

I tore up my knee, I tore up my back, you know, I broke a few fingers. I would do it all again because it was much, much easier than the contact sport of politics. Geez. Okay, so let me ask you this one last question. I’m looking at, because I remember all of these democratic mayors, including Eric Adams at the time, and they signed this letter over to the White House, including Denver Mayor Mike Johnson, and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, Karen Bass over there in L.A., and that was all as it relates to this migrant crisis.

For me, I’m always confused because I’m like, well, why would they go along with this knowing that this thing is going to possibly hurt their careers and it’s not necessarily going to be in the best interest of the city. Why do they go along with this? Like, what’s the play? The play is what the Democratic Party always does to us. It makes everything about racism. And once something is about racism, it provokes all black folk to be on one side or the other. And nobody wants to be on the side of something that is, quote, unquote, racist.

And so they use it as a weapon to be able to isolate and marginalize black elected officials to take a position as counter to that, which they really believe. And I just thank God, I just really never been that way. I mean, that’s not, no, man, listen, I don’t want the people here. We can’t afford, we can’t think, man, let them be. They’re going to Texas, man, I’m staying out. These are private conversations that should have been had, but I’m not signing a letter. That’s why Mike Duggan is not signing a letter.

That’s why other mayors are not signing that stuff, man. They don’t want that here. We got issues of our own. We have poverty issues to engage ourselves. We also have crime issues and homeless issues and everything else to engage ourselves. And we need the federal government to do what it’s supposed to do on the borders of America. And that’s, I think, that they got isolated. And I think that it’s hurting Brandon Johnson worse than anybody. Yeah, he catching it. He catching hell. I’m surprised they even let him speak at the Democratic National Convention, but it wasn’t Chicago, but they gave him a weird time.

Yeah, you know, it was, I think that they had to do that because he’s taking so much abuse and he’s playing for the team. He’s a union supporting guy. He’s isolating himself a lot from the community. I want to talk to him so bad because, you know, it’s ultimately about winning the election, like not just being a good guy. You got to understand that the people that you really talking to in Washington and some of these union leadership people, they’re not going to vote. They’re not in your district. And some of this, you have to turn back and say, what do I need to do for the citizens? And now you have a real revolution starting in Chicago, especially when now GD’s and vice laws and DD’s are coming together against the migrant crisis.

You know, anytime you see a rallying cry against you from everybody in society, then that’s a problem. And so, you know, but I think they did. I think they signed that letter in time because, you know, it reckoned them back to a time in America when African Americans were being isolated and told that they can’t do certain things in certain community. And people, you know, took that and ran with it and said, we can’t allow this to happen to these people. They came here for a better life. They came here for this, but they, and all of those things are true.

The problem is, as the corporate leader of your community, you have to make decisions not only for what’s best economically, but also what’s best for quiet enjoyment and what’s best for safety. And so you have to make a decision that the people that you have, you have to learn how to manage first. Now, you got to think about it too. All of these were first term mayors. Karen Bass. Mike Johnson, Brandon Johnson, all of them. So they got him early. They got him a no second term mayor. That’s why I use Mike again.

It’s not because he bring, he just know, you know, he could see politically down the road. Now, this is crazy too. Probably the closest mayor in the entire country to Joe Biden is Mike Duggan in Detroit. Oh, without question. 1994, he ran his campaign for president. I didn’t know that. They, him, McNamara and Duggan, great friends, personal friends. Listen, he had me. I met with Joe Biden when he ran for president the first time because Mike Duggan had me come down. I was in the state legislature. And so they are cool, cool. So why didn’t he sign the letter if it was so important to the president? Because it wasn’t important to the president.

It wasn’t. And that’s the thing. What about, okay, so let me ask you this one last question. I see Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer everywhere. She had the Oprah event for Kamala Harris. She had the rallies and all of that. They highlighted her like they’re really, really highlighting and pushing her. What is that about? What do you think that that’s about? I think that she’s one of a handful of people. Her, along with the governor in Kentucky, and a couple others that are the next thing for the Democratic Party. And what the party saw… That’s the bullpen that you was telling me about? That’s the bullpen.

Those are the people to watch. Those are the people that are already getting some of the money people to start financing their movement. Yeah, how they move around the country and get more national presence and, you know, look, the national spots to speak in different places. You know, she’s an attractive woman, smart lawyer. She can speak. She has the support of her community and her state. She’s right on the issues that they care about, the money people care about. And there’s somebody they want to move forward. And so if you have her and a governor of Kentucky as the next thing, it starts to look good again for the Democratic Party.

They don’t want a situation like Biden-Harris again. I don’t care what all they’re saying going about Kamala Harris right now. It’s not their choice. It’s just anybody but Trump, and let’s make this person look the best. And so they’re thinking past right now. And as sure as they’re running hard Kamala Harris, if she by the way happens to win, which I don’t think she will, but if she does, she’ll be a one-turner, and her party is going to come after her. Well, what about all of these mayors that’s catching these Ls? The Brandon Johnsons, the Mike Johnsons, what happens to them? Because they’re the ones that actually it seems like did the heavy lifting when it came to advocating and pushing while at the same time kind of protecting the president and all of these legislatures, especially with regard to this immigration crisis and all of these different issues, they’re the ones that’s kind of on the front line.

They’re the army, they’re the soldiers. What happens to them? Each one of them is going to have to run their own race and turn back to their communities and run it. That’s it. They’re not going to get the help from the Democratic Party. They’re not going to get the assistance. They’re not going to do any of that. I learned that after my first term. After my first term, I had about $10,000 in the bank, and they raised $2 million for my opponent to beat me. Really? I was a bit too independent. But you still won, though.

Yeah, I had to raise, I went out and raised a million and a half in six months just to compete on TV with a person that came out of the blue to beat me that was supported by all of the Democratic Party folks, all of the news stations, all of the newspaper newspapers, news radio, everybody was supporting them except the people. And I learned then that the only way to win in your community is you got to turn back to the people who actually vote. All of those folks, the Democratic Party people, the unions, they don’t live in your community.

And so if you can raise the money to get your message out, which I would strongly urge Brandon Johnson to start doing right now and then start having community events and get beat up now. Go get beat up right now. Go in those communities and have them talk about you and say, I apologize for that. Listen, when I got here, this is what I experienced. And I did the best I could with the information I had. I relied on some people who told me that this was the right, but all of those people are gone now.

And it’s just us. And I wanted to get back to knowing what you need from me. You got to go out there and take it. If you can’t face your own people, you don’t need to be mayor anyway. And so I think that this is going to be a very, very good bellwether moment next year as mayors around the country have to run again. And you got an open spot, it looks like, in Detroit. So that’s a great thing. I don’t think Mike Duggan is running again. You don’t think so? I don’t think so at all, no.

But why wouldn’t he? Because, I mean, he kind of out of the… Mike Duggan is kind of in a sweet spot because he out of the mix as far as not necessarily being as visible. But at the same time, he’s benefiting greatly off of the growth of the city right now. Yes, Mike has done a good job. He took the foundational tools that he had, and he’s done the work. And then now with the growth of what they call gentrification, you have a strong voice from the media and everybody that’s supporting him.

Because everybody feels a part of Detroit in a way that they never have, that kind of thing. So who replaces him though? I don’t know. I heard some names that are running out of there. I’m kind of far away from it. I’ve been dealing more with nationally, but whoever it is, it’s probably going to be an African-American person. And so that person has to continue to try to seek Mike Duggan type press because what happens in Detroit, whether you come in young or Kwame Kilpatrick or a black person they like, like Dennis Archer, there’s still an air of that person’s not good enough.

And so it’s going to be very important that the momentum continues, that the people in the press keep saying good things about Detroit. And every time it’s a shooting, one of the things, every time it was a shooting, it could have been somebody shot on the west side, and they came and talked to me. I’ll never see Mike on the news. No, he don’t. They talk to the chief of police, they talk to a sergeant, they talk to a sergeant, they talk to somebody other than him. I see Mike, he had all of the business openings though.

The ribbon cuttings. He’s at the ribbon cuttings. He’s at the ribbon cuttings. He’s kissing babies. He’s doing the things that old school mayors got a chance to do. Big city mayors, particularly those that are rough around the edges, or they’re ethnic, they don’t get to just kiss babies. They got to answer all the questions. Stop, I’m going to school. Yeah, you hear this. This is my man. So, you know, that’s what happens now in those kind of races. And I just think, you know, whoever it is, you know, they will have to set a different type of table because I think it’s going to be a turn back to the community.

And I think the community, although everybody’s been pretty much okay, obviously, because that’s how they voted with what’s going on, there’s been also a lack of connection to downtown that people desire and yearn for it too. So how can you get both? How can you be connected to what’s going on and also keep the momentum so you’re happy about what’s going on? And that’s what the next year, you’re all candidate, it’s going to have to show what they can do. Connect the rest of the city with what’s happening downtown.

All right. Yep. All right. Listen, Kwam, I’m going to hit you up after I get off of here. Yeah, I need that, man. Give me a holler. I love this. All right, bet. All right, brother. All right, bye. [tr:trw].

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