shaking trees rather than picking up fruits trying to make jam out let's get to the jam eaters in a 2nd this book in this book you blame yourself and others becoming complacent under the obama presidency at tell me a bit about that and how you see that complacency is creating donald trump well i think that many of us were very supportive and i'll still support of many of the initiatives of president obama during his presidency from health care police reform to other areas and did not do as much as we could to hold the opposition accountable and to hold even some aspects of his own administration that was resistant to change accountable and that we should have always had the vigor to be continue to fight no matter who was in office even if it was someone that i felt was doing the right thing but you still had your

national action network the initials of behind you that running joining the obama presidency i know time and time again in the book you talk about it is a model of grassroots action at the very local level to help a civil rights and social justice no i have we definitely were very active during is 8 years trayvon martin we were out on the front lines of that from the beginning as well as the ferguson killing in ferguson missouri michael brown in aragon all of that happened during the obama era what i'm saying is that we could do even more and i think that that's what i challenge that we should never even modify what we do and i think we were very active but i think we could have been more active while everyone knows you did you did a lot because we had we had one of the top trumps pastas. a guy called darrell

scott he said that trump has been the most pro black president ever and of course he reminded us how black lies might have began under the a bamma presidency when those horrific police killings across the world on t.v. screens. day the killing of aragon a in new york and michael brown by police the slogan the hashtag that laughing matter literally started but 3 very young women the night that we saw the. acquittal of george zimmerman for killing trayvon martin in sanford florida so it started there but unlike the obama administration trump has not responded them the bombing ministration came in and had federal investigations federal involvement and advocated against it even the president himself barack obama address trayvon martin

said there could have been me at one point he said it could have been my son trump has denied that any of these issues events episodes were racist that there was any systemic racism still present and with drew in the justice department from things like consent to crees which is when the federal government says that police departments would have a pattern of inequality if unfairness harassment or killings could no longer operate on their own that they must be under the supervision of the justice department from suspended a trance suspended lawsuits by the obama administration's justice department that said that we are suing because you are inhibiting people from voting so in many ways you are by the initiation was moving forward as lyndon johnson's administration in some areas were in the days of dr king all of that came to an abrupt halt. oh and reversal on the donald trump i mean i don't know where the

trump said himself but he probably thinks he outdoes l.b.j. on civil rights i mean you don't take it seriously when i his people talk about $500000000000.00 for people of color communities and $500000.00 new jobs these statistics when nothing to you as opposed to the questionable record of obama and joe biden well i date that you would be very very hard to prove that any of those figures are correct 1st of all the unemployment of blacks started going down under obama and biden and down trump just reaped the benefit of a economy that had been say what one would have to ask themselves is how then you explain that blacks are still more an intro to whites there was initiatives by the obama administration to close the gap the troubled ministration had not only not

had an initiative to close the gap even in a good economy where black some unemployed in whites he refuses to even acknowledge the inequality in terms of the other programs that he announced we've yet to see the results these announcements but on the ground we're still more on employees still more incarcerated still a lot 'd of victims of police brutality still the ones denied more rights to vote so they can make whatever proclamations they want the facts that day they have not resulted in any movement toward change we could have different opinions we cannot have different facts where the facts i'll get to by them harris and a 2nd if i may tell me about the scene in the book where a trump apparently gets upset that you call him a racist and his lawyer michael cohen gave you a phone call michael cohen called me through a mutual friend and said dad trump wanted to meet. as he could not understand why i

was attacking bertha risen as racist and bertha rhythm was when donald trump which was the issue he entered form of into politics was saying that the president of united states barack obama was not a real american he was not born in america was born in kenya when there is no evidence at all supporting that in fact the evidence is the contrary that he was born in the state of ohio and grew up there and i said this was trying to play into the us against them he's not one of us it was a donald trump that to god had calling for the execution of 5 black and brown young men for raping a white woman in central problem in manhattan that ended up not having done that even been done or truck refused to say that they should not be given a settlement and should not have gone free so i think that when michael cohen call through a mutual friend and trumpet i met i said to him that this is

a racist lie and it is race based and you're playing to a crowd us against them kind of rhetoric and he was denying it and he says when you and i have had bad days and we got along socially you know i'm not a racist i said 1st what i said which is saying is is racist and i'm not calling you by name a racist at that point but i concluded that he is a racist because he's comfortable and using racism he's comfortable in of being around race astellas denies that and as you outlined the book he says on bill o'reilly's show on fox news you apologized. apologized not at all 1st of all i went that same night on my show and said that he was going to distort the meeting and that i did not apologize and certainly i've not apologized since i've been very clear. all over the country saying that i believe emphatically and

i'll repeat it donald trump is a racist and a big and that is my view so or for what reason would i have apologized if i was going right back on television the same day saying the same thing that i've said and i've repeated incidents even though you have talks he denies he's a racist people can catch our interview with a totally exonerated central park 5 number yusef salaam on this show on our you tube channel because i imagine fox news that was hit by the me too scandal this book time and time again emphasizes the intersectional nature of the struggle l g b t q i rights movement people are going to be a bit shocked suddenly when they turn one of the pages in your book and you say you found yourself with harvey weinstein robert deniro and others. join the 26 team the election that night just tell me how you were sitting next to harvey

weinstein and these celebrities well there was a private party of those that had supported the clinton campaign to weiss the results i would buy the clinton headquarters it was very crowded and even in the reserved area so i decided to go to this private fire in my girlfriend and i and robert dinero and others was sponsoring a body weinstein was there who had been a supporter of the campaign and that's out found myself sitting that night just watching the returns this was way before any of the allegations against why stina gone public so i don't think any of us were aware of any of that what the wildstein was later accused of big donors to the clinton campaign you think if hillary clinton had won weinstein would be in jail right now i think that if hillary clinton won i don't know if he'd be in jail i don't think she would have done anything to end a feel would an investigation or prosecution that is not been anything that i knew

as a senator as 1st lady i've never seen or try to stop digital investigations when seen it was denies all the accusations and is that fighting the case brevin al sharpton i'll stop you that more from the legendary civil rights activist after this short break. it was a very nice show from president. and i could have said no thank you or i could have said thank you and i said i'll take it and now it's time to ensure they. don't

travel thank you says a dream much to their. name whatever you want to name i mean i don't know how when i come that the news that's dishonest tell when i call that a recorder or a network that's totally dishonest c.n.n. is saying you know 100 percent negative. change fast changes so sometimes i'll say that's going to be a great story be a pretty good report and others good as you. do we'll see what happens. i always say who knows what we'll see on the field will be successful. because. it. is an old but i'm also the most companies you know i've been

a kid who says you know. when i meet. his compass he must be tall and will be honest even though he goes from didn't you notice or speak to c.b.c. just put oh you little different to a coke. with someone. who see him in the middle. of the. little kid is he. always be. in that clip that he comes to your list too. in a minute i'm so old and see you as an old man because he. joined me every thursday on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to guest on the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see that.

welcome back i'm still here with the author of rise up reverend al sharpton why did you always have an affinity for the democrats given that hillary clinton certainly in the global south is known for a foreign policy that is has been devastating to countries all around the world i mean libya to name to name one country which doesn't doesn't feature in this book but it's africa's riches but having a country and now lies in ruins because of obama and clinton arguably well i disagreed with that and i said that i would have marched under clinton administration when they came with the omnibus crime bill that i think led to a lot of incarceration of blacks in in the ninety's i marched against clinton on welfare reform i think politics is about choices and i felt that they were a better choice than the opposition but i by no means felt that they were not flawed in certain areas and would publicly take them to task on that as well as the

reason i ran for president myself in 2004 was challenging the democratic party when i was born my parents were republican they became democrats in the sixty's when john kennedy and lyndon johnson supported to civil rights movement both johnson and kennedy had some baggage that we didn't like but they were better than nixon side i think that you deal with choice when you're trying to get where you can even if it is then of course steps. you're not looking for perfection you're looking for liberation i mean how difficult has it been i mean the there's a scene in this book when there you are trying to create a better world. and i understand al gore says to it what do i tell jewish voters just because you're meeting up with them seemingly believing all the anti sharpton that propaganda is that is that what the d.n.c.

was like is that what the d.n.c. is like today that was were part of the d.n.c. was like if you go back into the 1980 s. it was bill clinton and al gore and others that formed a right way into the democratic party called the democratic leadership conference democratic leadership council which i talk about in the book and they were trying to bring the party away from what they felt was the left for the progressives in bollywood jesse jackson's campaign who was a mental mind i ran to try to bring it back from this triangulation is moving the party to the right and i think that it has been followed as i talk about in the book by elizabeth warren and bernie sanders and others and i think that is of been an intra party struggle that has now moved the party more toward which should be but is still not all the way we ought to be but it is still in my judgment much better than the republicans that don't move at all in any area toward the trying to

have an equal and fair society you see we talk to young activists who want people to vote by them this time around they appear to say things haven't changed that much there's all sorts of propaganda against bernie sanders supporters people on the left what is the democratic party so associated with the right in some ways now. i think that that's a great question that we challenge and i talk about that in the book i call them latte liberals those that are saying things but will not get into the work and i think that we've got to work those of us that relate to the democratic party to our defeat those right wing do it as we continue to do it a gradual list in the party and i think that's true in any political party but it as i say in the book if i'm in an abusive relationship that does not mean i leave the relationship and become someone that is going to go would have picked up i try

to correct the relationship or build an alternative that answers my needs i think the republicans are not an alternative 'd they want to pick up on the deficiencies of the democratic party and awful blacks and others nothing ok maybe call the police and of the piece of relationship what do they make you feel when trump is on these rallies as he will be at time and time again he's the one doing a mom a caged refugees from central america dehumanizing the children denying them medical care he's the one who put those camps before donald trump did earlier in the book of course refugees feature as you call it as you say jesus was a palestinian refugee no doubt about it that jesus was a refugee and there were many of us that was opposed to some of what was done on the obama administration but he certainly was not doubt at the level of down the

trunk and if donald trump was of opposed to it he should have said that didn't he should not have duplicated he has not only do the created he's expanded it the and he has bragged about it and i think that it is in human you cannot have it saying that i'm doing some because somebody else allegedly did i think he says he reduced the number of. cage's in fairness to him list well i mean let's get on to the green new deal environmental ism again features in this book this existential crisis the world has what do we make of joe biden as he says to the world he opposes the green new deal he wants fracking. i think that we disagree with him on that and even some of the authors of the green new deal congresswoman ok as you know cortez and others have supported biden but say very strongly that they are going to fight for the green new deal again i support the green new deal as support what they're about i

disagree with biden on some things but i think he's a better alternative than donald trump i mean maybe people from around the world after reading this book and reading other books may find it difficult to understand how biden can so easily rely on the black voters just to turn out interesting line in your book we say the average black voter is more centrist on issues not having to do with race they are driven by socialist ideas you think that's behind the behind the fact that biden doesn't need to even particularly campaign to have people of color this november i think he has campaigned i think that biden is spent an inordinate amount of time talking meaty and taken stands with us joe biden sent a video to the funeral of george floyd after flying in meeting with the family and i the day before the funeral where donald trump and others have not done that at

all i don't think that joe biden has neglected talking and being held accountable to the black community in this campaign he and i disagree in the ninety's vehemently around the crime but i think that he has made many appearances in the black community including with national action network and has come to terms with some of our critiques and criticisms yeah because you remember the crime bill but you never see much about it today do people of color in the united states have an easier about segregated schools the in fact i'm going to ask you about the supreme court we have the supreme court hearing going on at the moment was it biden that facilitated the judge scalia and and john. clarence thomas on the supreme court and we would tag bad and he has said that he was wrong he has said on the tin to kind of course we're talking 2530 years ago that i think he was wrong but i'm talking about somebody who into trades scalia proteges now so the question is are

we going to hold biden to a standard of what he did decades ago and said he misstep and therefore say we go with somebody that that supports that right now and i think given the choice is it would be unwise to go with the right now a bigot and not the one that says this was not my intentions it did leave the wrong place when you're a reverend you believe in redemption clearly well how about something more or more recent than kemal a harris you very nice or in this book she fought to keep innocent people in jail she booked payments to wrongly convicted people as a prosecutor in california argued for keeping nonviolent offenders in jail as a cheap labor source she opposed d.n.a. testing to exonerate prisoners on death row why are you so nice about come on to her as which i think she did not is the impact of some of that i think some of that

many of us criticized her for and in support of many didn't support to be for those reasons donna primers but i think if you look at the overwhelming record in terms of police reform and in terms of sentencing reform as attorney general california and d.a. she also did think that was very good but yes we differ with on some of her decisions and have been very public about that and i think that was a major issue during the campaign going to the primaries when she was running there's a lot of rewriting of history that you believe needs to be done many millions of people around the world need to be done donald trump doesn't think needs to be done tell me who surely chism is and why you see here is so. no important crediting. with such as and such an inspiration to shirley chisholm was the 1st black woman elected to congress the year dr king was killed i was aboard for each in new york i was 13 years old i got to know i became wonder do you directors in

a campaign in 72 when she ran for president and i think that shirley chisholm changed the tenor of the country by running a credible race as a black woman that i think helped to add to a just a climate that led to barbara jordan others getting national claim and ultimately led to a black woman on the national ticket or one of the 2 major parties in the country today i do not think that if we didn't have a shirley chisholm changing the climate in the country we would have ever had a come of the haves and do you think that some of the people in the d.n.c. hierarchy understand the sacrifices you made in your activism you talked about the fact that on learning of your mother's death. well to tell me what you were doing on the day that you know i was on my way to sanford florida to lead the 1st national rally around the killing the racial killing of trayvon martin and when i was en route to the airport on it got the text from my sister in alabama i was born

and raised in brooklyn but my mother was 'd from both in alabama that my mother had passed and she had been sick for a while and i started to turn around i decided that my mother would want me to go and stand up for trayvon and i went ahead and did it and in fact trayvon surprise will surprise that i showed up and we had 10000 people there that night and i spoke lead that rally and that subsequent rallies i've i feel that sacrifice goes along with activism if you're not willing to sacrifice you ought to do something else with your life i mean and towards the end of the book you say go to more funerals than baptisms and the most common refrain you hear from the black community is we're black lies matta change anything is it going to be any change can you not see that the reason there must be that apathy and that pessimism is partly because of the kind of political machinations that the played out income as korea in joe

biden's career absolutely but i think that despite saying that you have to look at the fact that in my lifetime in my lifetime i went from a mother who couldn't vote in our native alabama until she was in the thirty's to have a son being able in one generation to run for president and help reduce a lot of both the so sometimes you have to look at the long arc of history it does lean toward progress i talk about what i met nelson mandela and thought about how he sat in jail 27 years as some of his colleagues along the neck and they did change the democratic principles in south africa not their konami so i was got yes i think you got to deal with the fact that. age does not happen overnight but if you can start making the change happen and continue to build on it change will come and is understandable people apathetic and pessimistic and think that one of the

things that all people that are leading the change movements are on the vanguard of them have to do is keep giving people who have a hole because despair and conceding only helps those that are oppressing you they want you to get book and whatever you do you can't give up just finally. whatever the past 3 and a half years of trump have done would you accept and you mentioned clinton the clinton crime bill area do you think that crime bill costs along a shadow over the communities of color in the united states and i know you talk about the roots of racism in law enforcement native americans the african genocide is it not that clinton crime bill that costs a far bigger shadow over the people of color than anything trump has done. not at all i think that of the crime bill was wrong i think it hurt us for a long time but i think when barack obama came in and commuted more sentences many of whom were people incarcerated under that crime bill it began to turned around

why wouldn't the obama. commutations of hundreds of people some of which was done through national action network my group why would that cast a shadow that was reversed down front saying we ought to have national stop and frisk policies and other policies where he defended the police no matter what when a young man just a couple of months ago was shot in the back 7 times on video going to his coffin conversion was concent and they shot him in the back and the communities all over the country we rose up calling for justice for blake donald trump went to that town and met with law enforcement and stood up for the law enforcement that you can compare that to any shadow that may have happened in the ninety's we were out in the ninety's against what clinton did but we also was there when obama did a reversal in those kind of commuting of those sentences reverend al sharpton thank

you. thank you and that's it for the show will be back on saturday 214 years to the day of the assassination of haitian revolutionary georgia definitely a move made haiti not only the richest nation of the americas but the 1st to permanently abolish slavery you can catch our interview about his inspiration to sound of a tour as well as all our interviews on our you tube channel until then join the underground on twitter facebook instagram a sound. as the election approaches we feel it's necessary to ask a very simple though important question why do most potential voters describe themselves as independent or not affiliated with the political party on top of this poll after poll reveals voters want more choices just the 2 party system limiting for more. democracy. a

dark industry comes to life in los angeles every night. dozens of women sells their bodies on the streets many of them under-age. los angeles police reveal a taste of their daily challenge no if you're going to exploit a child here in los angeles they were going to come out to see officers going undercover as 6 workers and customers to fight 6 trade. shows seemed wrong. roles just don't call. me at all but yet to stamp out disdain becomes agitated and engagement equal to trail. when so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground.

russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov heads back to the european threats of sanctions over the nevada case saying the hostile language coming from the e.u. is making it impossible to maintain relations loss of there was no good what pulls us in the question is not just with business as usual as possible but with any business with the european union it is possible to move. the viability of the cease fire between armenia and azerbaijan looking ever greater downtime it claims are repeated violations by both sides r.t. reports from the devastated capital of the disputed newborn no care about the region. before the war with the street used to be bustling with lights neighbors would come visit each other mothers would read.