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Speaker 1: Broadcasting from the CivicCypher studios, welcome to the QR code where we share perspective, seek understanding, and shape outcomes. The man you are about to hear from is a man who, I guess, emotionally is on cloud nine. Physically is probably on maybe cloud six, cloud five, something like that. Cloud seven.
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Speaker 2: Cloud seven, okay.
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Speaker 1: We'll go with cloud seven.
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Speaker 2: But anyway, we are here. And he is the Q in the QR code.
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Speaker 1: He goes by the name of Q1.
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Speaker 2: The man that you just heard from, he got me excited. You know, we wrote this book. We'll tell you more about that later. But we wrote this article today. And we don't really get in our co-write bag that often. But after those election and midterm results, we were both in that space. And it had to happen, you know. So he is the R in the QR code. But he is also... The doctor, philosopher, writer, scripter, producer, security, he'd be bodybuilding. He'd do it all. And his name is Ramses Jha.
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Speaker 1: That's my name. Today's episode includes a conversation about, obviously, the midterm elections. As always, for anything you might miss or may have missed, download the full episode at CivicCypher.com, BINews.com, or wherever you get your podcasts. Again, CivicCypher.com, C-I-V-I-C-C-I-P-H-E-R.com. BINnews.com, BINnews.com, or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, around here, as you may or may not know, we like to start off with some good news. Sometimes it's a feel-good feature. Sometimes it's ebony excellence. Either way, today we're sharing from the BIN. This is from Maya Bode. World leaders are reacting to Democrats' victories in the midterm elections. Tuesday, November 3rd, which marked a major political setback for President Donald Trump, The results have sparked conversations abroad about what the shift in political power could mean for U.S. foreign policy, ongoing conflicts, and relationships with other countries. The international reactions come as Democrats' victories reflected broader dissatisfaction with Trump's leadership. An NPR analysis of the election found that 62% of voters disapproved of Trump's job performance, while two-thirds said his policies had made economic conditions worse. From Europe to the Middle East, foreign officials are considering what the democratic victories could mean for international relations, ongoing conflicts and economic policies. British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said the election results presented an opportunity for countries to come together around shared concerns, particularly the rising cost of living.
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Speaker 2: There's a quote here.
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Speaker 1: I feel the world has an opportunity now to unite around the issue that is affecting us all, he said. Iranian parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, interpreted the results as a rejection of the Trump administration's approach to the conflict involving Iran. Quote, Americans said no to war, in all caps, and we endorse this message. Unquote, he wrote in a post on X, according to Al Jazeera. European parliament vice president, Christelle Chaldimos, also expressed optimism about about the political implication for Europe, saying she was cautiously optimistic about the results. She suggested the democratic victories could benefit U.S. support for Ukraine, climate initiatives, and international relations. Other countries offered more measured responses. China's foreign ministry described the election as an internal affair of the United States. Meanwhile, Japanese officials reaffirmed their alliance with Washington and acknowledged that remains central to the country's foreign and security policy, according to Al Jazeera. And around here, we think that's better than the alternative. And so it looks like we might be recovering on the world stage. Happy about that. This is the QR code. That is where you have it. Ramses Jha, that's my name. Q Ward, that's his name. We did not vote for allies. That title means something a little bit more specialty. Normally, we share content where we are sourcing.
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Speaker 2: Other journalists.
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Speaker 1: But, you know, longtime listeners know that Q & I, we will often make our own literary contributions, I guess, to the culture and journalistic contributions to the culture as well. And we did one. this week because it was important. And the title was, We Did Not Vote for Allies. So again, if you want to check out the full article, do us a favor, visit hiphopweeklymagazine.com and find out more. But Q, tell our listeners more about this article.
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Speaker 2: So intentionally worded in a way that might make you pause when you read it, right? Because you might read that as we didn't vote on behalf of allies. And that's not what we mean. Because allyship is a space that we have been rooted in for a very long time.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, the whole time, yeah.
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Speaker 2: We did not vote for these elected officials to just be allies of ours.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, lip service.
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Speaker 2: They've been very, very loudly anti-Trump. But Ramsden and I have learned that being anti-Trump does not automatically make you pro the people of the United States. The enemy of my enemy is not my friend. If when you're elected, you're going to do nothing to right the wrongs that this country has had to suffer. Under this administration. Absolutely. We wrote a book. You might have heard us start to talk about that more recently as we're getting to a point where we're going to have a lot of good news to share with you soon regarding that book. But we wrote like three versions of this book. And the first two versions were anchored in allyship. And what we learned is that ally is a really weak word. When the rubber hit the road and things got really, really difficult and scary, We looked left and right for allies to stand with us and help elect the first black woman to
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ever be the president of the United States. And for their own reasons, some of them very, very valid. However, some of them very, very dismissive of our plight. People chose to either vote for the other guy or not vote at all. Our third party. And our allies left us to suffer. And they were able to justify that. Real quick. Please.
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Speaker 1: Allies are in the context that we're using the term allies right now.
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Speaker 2: Allies.
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Speaker 1: Big boy said this when we went to go talk to him in L.A. Allies are the people that in their heart, they feel like they're good people. They feel like they're on the right side of history. Pat on the back. Keep going. You know, I believe in you.
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Speaker 2: That's a sympathetic word. Yes.
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Speaker 1: Allies are the people that let the batteries die in their bullhorn's. And I'll bet any amount of money, because we keep a bullhorn in the studio, I'll bet any amount of money if we turn that on, it'll make some noise.
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Speaker 2: Anyway, that's an ally.
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Speaker 1: I wanted to make sure we identified that.
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Speaker 2: Important to say that. But again, the title of the article written intentionally to make people pause and see, you know, what is this article where we didn't vote for allies?
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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it still works. The battery's still working in this one.
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Speaker 2: So- Again, what we learned in that last election that a lot of well-meaning, seeming to be pleasant, seeming to be kind and sympathetic, sympathy being the word, not empathy, allies did not show up for us when we needed them. And some of them already had the letter D next to their name. We've seen more than a dozen Democrats vote alongside Republicans for on a bunch of issues that have ravaged our communities and people who we've called allies all over the world. So we did not get to this point to go back to the status quo.
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Speaker 1: Sure.
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Speaker 2: And in the middle of celebrating, I really hate that this is where we've gotten. Our election night should have been a fully celebratory moment. We saw record turnouts. And to be quite frank, and Ramses, I'm sure you will agree with this, we got a result we didn't think was possible. Like I thought we could win, maybe. I didn't expect to win. I thought we could win. I didn't see us curb stomping them folks.
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Speaker 1: They got molly whopped.
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Speaker 2: Molly whopped, dog walked. A-Town stomped. Real bad. Speaking of A-Town stomped, shout out to Keisha Lance Bottoms, the first black woman governor ever. In the history of the United States. Wow. And shout out to Georgia for electing a black woman to be its governor because Ramsden, I saw them Confederate flags and it ain't just Atlanta down there. So shout out to Georgia. But what is not okay, just like we saw people preemptively bow down to anti-DEI rhetoric from the other side, we are seeing a lot of prominent names preemptively put up their hands and tell us, hey, We're not here for revenge. We're not here for impeachments. We're just here to govern and make everything affordable. And that, Ramses and I felt, and I'll let Ramses take over here, but Ramses and I felt that was disrespectful to the record number of voters that showed out just for you to do exactly what you're saying you're not going to do. Justice, accountability, impeachment. hearings, investigations, somebody being held accountable for dead American citizens by the federal government, families being torn apart, turning our country and our home into a terror state in a lot of places, putting armed troops on the streets. Like, really making our country and the world less safe and less stable. So to just say, okay, we got all the power back now, politics as usual, is disrespectful to the people who gave you that power back.
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Speaker 1: It's disrespectful AF. And to continue with that, the reason, and I know that a lot of elected officials listen to the show, feel free to call me, but this will make sense and you'll understand where it's coming from. we've seen what can happen when people are extremely intentional about wielding their power. We've witnessed that. All of us collectively saw what intentionality can do. All of us collectively saw what the numbers mean, when you have the numbers and you have the strength. And Democrats, or I should say liberals, Democrats and socialists and everyone else, now have that strength. They now have those numbers. And they can actually make some moves. And if y'all don't start busting moves, we're going to end up right back where we were in another two years.
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Speaker 2: It's the reason he was able to be elected again.
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Speaker 1: Thank you.
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Speaker 2: Because Chuck Schumer and the leadership, Nancy Pelosi, Hakeem Jeffries, they did nothing. Right. They did nothing but sit on their hands. Yep.
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Speaker 1: And and this current president administration did not sit on their hands. They got in that office, their their offices, and they got super busy. And so now we know what super busy looks like and we know it's possible. And if you don't do that, if you take the limp wristed approach, this is your last chance, your last best chance. And that's me being generous. But I would I would argue it's your last chance. To exist in the minds of the people as those who are qualified to govern, not just you individuals in your own little districts and parts of the country, but as under the name Democrat. What does that mean? Donald Trump was not exaggerating when he called y'all do nothing Democrats. And then obviously the Democrats thing is kind of silly because I don't think y'all are dumb. But if you're not effective, then.
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Speaker 2: It's really easy to tease you.
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Speaker 1: So to your point, and again, we implore you to check out the article. Again, it's at hiphopweeklymagazine.com. We did not vote for
allies, authored by me and Q. For those of you that have been elected, for those of you that we've entrusted with this power, our hope is that you seize this opportunity. to bring about accountability for those people who are no longer here, for those people who have been abused by the previous administration, to those people who have been disenfranchised. We insist that you make an example out of this man so that nobody else does that to us again. You can do anything he did. And if you don't do it and you have that limp-wristed approach, You will no longer be in power. Because the socialists are on their way. And and we like them because they talk how we like people to talk. So all of that Kumbaya stuff is super over and they they started it. So you finish it. For those just locking into us here at the QR code keyword, that's his name, Ramses Jha. That's my name.
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Speaker 2: Um.
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Speaker 1: And, of course, we are broadcasting from the Civic Cypher studios. Let's talk about what Republicans are doing. Republicans are trying to figure out who to blame for their losses this week. And their losses were substantial. I'm sure that they knew that a reckoning was coming, but perhaps they didn't anticipate it being this bad. I don't think anybody anticipated this altogether. I will share what Republicans are saying from the BIN. The author Maya Bodhi returns. Republicans are clashing over who is responsible for the party's sweeping losses in Tuesday, November 3rd' s midterm elections, with some calling for new leadership, while others want President Donald Trump to double down on his agenda. Vice President J.D. Vance offered one explanation on Wednesday, blaming the U.S. war with Iran and for driving voters who support the Trump-Vance tickets in 2024 away from Republicans. In a post on X, Vance also pointed to frustration over the cost of living and the administration's relationship with Israel. Quote, the reason we lost is the war. Unquote, Vance wrote, adding that an honest discussion about the party's future must start there. So as you may or may not know, Donald Trump, And J.D. Vance ran on an America first platform, suggesting that Democrats had lost the plot and that they were going to put America first. They were going to put everyday average working Americans first. They were going to be making more money and blah, blah, blah. And of course, those of us on this side that haven't drank the Kool-Aid, we knew better because there was no substance behind those empty promises. Anybody can say everybody's going to get a new Mercedes and $ 10, 000 in their bank account. Anybody can say that, but you typically need a plan. How are you going to do this? You typically need a plan in order to convince people that that's actually going to happen. Well, in Magaland, they really didn't need a plan. The language was enough. Or perhaps, you know, Q would suggest that they bonded on more than just language. They bonded on a collective sense of opposing language. everyone who's not like them. And specifically, we've seen consistent evidence that suggests that they feel that the people who oppose them are black people, brown people, trans people, gay people, immigrants, on and on and on. Indeed, the majority of Americans. So, The thing that I think that stands out to me in terms of Vice President J.D. Vance's comments is when Donald Trump was asked, you might recall, he was asked about.
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Speaker 2: Daycare. I believe it was daycare.
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Speaker 1: And he said, listen, I don't have time to deal with daycare. We're fighting wars. And, you know, that on the heels of a promise. And it wasn't two years. It was probably a year and a half, maybe. But, you know, I remember him saying that and everyone was just like shocked that he now is prioritizing a war that he started at the behest of Israel. And all the people that voted for him, at least the ones that bought into his empty promises, bought in under the America First banner. And so I think there's some truth here with what J.D. Vance is saying. I'll move. The young Republicans of Texas called for the GOP to return to its America First message. Makes sense. Advocating for nationalist immigration, foreign and economic policies. Their statement came after the Democrats. James Tallarico defeated Republican Ken Paxton in the U.S. Senate race. And Gina Hinojosa, I believe, defeated incumbent Republican Governor Greg Abbott, ending the party's decades-long hold. on the governor's office. They both got stomped.
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Speaker 2: It was beautiful. All right.
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Speaker 1: The war has also fueled disagreements among conservative commentators. Comedian Dave Smith argued that critics of the Iran war, including Tucker Carlson, representative Thomas Massey, Joe Kent, and Megan Kelly were right to oppose it. Quote, the people who demonize them for their principled opposition deserve to be ruled by Democrats, but the rest of us don't. Smith wrote, um, right-wing activist, Laura Loomer, um, pushed back, accusing Smith and others of supporting democratic victories and downplaying what she described as the threat of communism and Islam in America. She called for those who opposed the war to be, quote, ostracized and protested publicly every time they leave their home, unquote, labeling them traitors to America. Yeah, I mean, what am I going to say about Laura Loomer? This is textbook Islamophobia, and the threat of communism is laughable, Um, people don't understand what communism is. Um, and people are afraid of socialism as you and I, we talk about on the show quite a bit, but, um, for all of the complaints that they have in this system in which we live, a capitalist society uh we are in such a late stage of capitalism that indeed more socialism might actually lift all the boats that would be the rising tide. And since people don't really understand it, and the right wing has managed to turn socialism and communism both into scary
words, which to be fair, they have not been executed in the way that I guess their advocates would have hoped. But once you get to late stage capitalism, you know, every once you get to late stage anything, it starts to crumble. And I think the purpose of a government is consistent with the ideals behind at least socialism. And if you've made all the money and you've built all the infrastructure and you've taken care of everything that you need to take care of, now is the time to take care of the people. You've already put everything else first. So to continue to put billionaires first just really doesn't make sense. Anyway, Laura Loomer is just fear-mongering with this communism word and the Islam in America thing is Islamophobic. That's all that is.
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Speaker 2: All right.
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Speaker 1: Former Trump White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt also defended the administration's economic messaging during an appearance on Fox News in an exchange with a reporter on the program Levitt blamed Democrats' victories on voters listening to what she called the lying media. That's so funny because she's the former White House press secretary and she was the queen of spin. If that's not lying, I don't know what is. Tell it to me straight. And outright lying, not just spinning. Outright lying. Like we have the receipts, but this is her doing what she does best, spinning and shifting the blame around. So yeah, she seems to think that it was the media that manipulated the population. And this is, I mean, who knows? Donald Trump won twice in two different eras. They weren't consecutive victories. So these people blaming election interference, these people blaming the media, these people, it's like they forget that it's a double-edged sword. And I know that around here, we do the same thing, you and I. But I think that our analysis is a little bit more rooted in fact, and there's less spin, way less spin. I personally, I won't speak for you, but I personally don't believe that I spin things Um, and if there is something hypothetical that I need to introduce into equation, I will, um, suggest that it is indeed hypothetical, um, just for the purpose of kind of taking folks through a thought experiment. But, uh, these folks, there's, it's, it's lying. I don't even want to call it border, uh, borderline lying. All right. Um, I'll continue. Uh, Quote, it was not simply a bad 2006 midterm election. Sorry, it was not simply a bad 2026 midterm election. It was a Watergate level repudiation. This is what Ted Cruz said on an episode of his podcast describing the Democratic shift across the country as a blue tsunami rather than a blue wave, which is what the term that's often used, blue wave, red wave. uh, in the, uh, midterm elections every four years, uh, usually there's a response from the party that doesn't hold the white house and it's manifest in the results of the midterm elections. So, um, normally that's called a blue wave or a red wave if a Democrat
holds the white house. Uh, but a blue tsunami is, I think he's right about that. And Ted Cruz, uh, And all these folks need to learn that it wasn't just Donald Trump, it was them. And the American public voted that they don't want any more of that. For those just locking in to the QR code, we appreciate you. Keep it right here. Ramses Jha, that's me. Q Ward, that's him.
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Speaker 2: All right.
00:24:08
Speaker 1: There's only one reason to celebrate Byron Donalds. Better do better. Okay. That I'll make that make sense in just a bit. There's only one reason to celebrate Byron Donalds. And that reason is.
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Speaker 2: That he's black.
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Speaker 1: For those people celebrating Byron Donalds, that's all you get.
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Speaker 2: He's black.
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Speaker 1: And I'll make my case. All right, I'm going to share from the BIN. Maya Bode, a Republican representative. Byron Donalds is projected to defeat Democrat David Jolly in Florida's gubernatorial race on Tuesday, November 3rd, becoming the first black person elected governor in the state's history. He will succeed Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who was barred by term limits from seeking another consecutive term, according to the Washington Post. The three-term congressman received an endorsement from President Donald Trump in February 2025 before officially launching his campaign for governor. His campaign platform included expanding school choice by giving families more options to enroll their children in private and charter schools. Put a pin in that because we're going to come back to that school choice in the private and charter schools. He also proposed limiting lawsuits against insurance companies and reducing certain state fees as part of an effort to lower homeowners insurance costs, according to his campaign website. According to the Washington Post, Donald's raised approximately eight times as much campaign money as Jolly, a former Republican congressman who joined the Democratic Party in 2025. His election maintains Florida's nearly three decade run of Republican governors while making a historic milestone for black political representation in the state. So that's it again. That's the only, the one and only reason to celebrate Byron Donalds.
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Speaker 2: No other reason.
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Speaker 1: It's because he is, he's for better or worse made that historic milestone for black political representation in the state. Now, I'm saying there's no other reason to celebrate him. And that's what I do on the show. But, you know, I brought my receipt, so I will share. Some of these might matter. Some might not. All of these matter, but I think I'll stick the landing at the end. So stick with me. All right, in June 2024, the Congressional Black Caucus issued a formal condemnation of McDonald's after he suggested that black families were more together during the Jim Crow era than they are today. Critics and civil rights leaders characterized the remarks as shameful and
factually problematic, accusing him of romanticizing a dark period of American history for political gain. So he's apologizing. or he's a Jim Crow apologist almost, in the eyes of the Congressional Black Caucus, saying that there was a good thing about Jim Crow and segregation and all that sort of stuff, and that black families were more together. That's in quotes. And it's a half-cocked view of those circumstances during that time, and intentionally so. All right, let's move on. During his 2026 political campaign, Donald's faced heavy pushback for spending time tens of millions of dollars on aggressive anti-transgender attack ads. Opponents and advocacy groups such as Equality Florida criticized him for using the transgender community as a political distraction from pressing state issues. Trans people make up such a small amount of the population relative to the amount of oxygen they consume in the Republican ecosystem. It's just another thing for Republicans to hate. Transgender people from where I sit aren't hurting anybody. They're not hurting kids. That's just, that's not a real thing. And if it is true, it's not to the degree that it justifies the amount of oxygen that's being given to their issues. It's simply another group for people to hate on. And to be fair, I have looked into some transgender groups transgender issues.
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Speaker 2: Here and there.
00:28:14
Speaker 1: But the real ones are sparse, the ones that have any real weight to them. And you could chalk them up simply to there being bad people who are trans, just like there are bad people who are black and bad people who are white and bad people who pick a designation. Not because they are trans, it's simply because they are bad.
00:28:35
Speaker 2: All right, I'll move on.
00:28:36
Speaker 1: Critics frequently target the source of Donald's household wealth. Five state-funded charter schools paid over $ 30 million over four years to private companies managed by his wife, Erica Donald. Opponents argue that these for-profit entities defund public education and function primarily as private equity real estate ventures. So not only is he getting money from his private school campaign promises, he's been getting money from that, looks like, For a long time, at least his wife, $ 30 million over four years seems like they're making a pretty penny there. So that's another reason that this guy's problematic. But the last and the one that's the most important around here. This man is what we call an Uncle Tom.
00:29:21
Speaker 2: He pulled up the ladder.
00:29:23
Speaker 1: He's a hypocrite, bona fide. And we talked about this. Donald has been open about minor legal infractions from his youth, which include an 18. 18 under arrest for marijuana possession and a 20 under charge related to bank debit card fraud. While Donald's benefited from a drug arrest diversion program that allowed him to clean his record and enter politics, critics point out that he has consistently opposed criminal justice reforms or leniency programs that would extend the same grace to young men in similar situations. So he is about himself. He is not about the people.
00:29:58
Speaker 2: So do better.