>> love him or ate him, he is a genius. thanks to tom lamas for that reporting. it is the top of the hour. thank you for staying with us. we have a lot more to get to. it is trump's world and republicans are still living in it whether they like it or not. how much of an effect will his latest stunts have in on an ongoing virginia race? new comedy special is the streaming company experiencing a few bad weeks. kyrie irving said his decision to not get vaccinated is not politically motivated but does he still carry the message for his actions will send? i'm ayman mohyeldin. let's get started. but before we begin on all these topics, i want to tell you about breaking news we mentioned in the last hour. the international alliance of theoretical stage employees reached an agreement. the deal averts a strike we were referring to that would have started at midnight on sunday. moving on to other issues right now, republicans across the country have spent much of the last year working to placate their delusions of former president trump and his big lie, most notably by enacting laws that restrict voting and making it easier to refuse certification of elections that have won by democrats. but trump unable to let a gift go unpunished is undercutting them at every turn, believe it or not. on wednesday he threatened to tell republican voters to stay at home in 2022 and 2024, unless his election fraud hoax is solved first. remember, it was this kind of behavior that helped georgia lose the two senate seats in january. but trump was just getting started. later that day he phonies phones in as a surprise guest in support of republican gubernatorial candidate glenn youngkin. the event was hosted by a former trump adviser, steve bannon. yes, the same steve bannon who is refusing to comply with a subpoena issued by the house select committee. at that virginia campaign event, trump supporters made a show of reciting the pledge of allegiance in front of an american flag that was carried during the insurrection at the capitol on january 6th. youngkin distanced himself from the flag display, saying it was, quote, weird and wrong. but as democratic opponent terry mcauliffe pounced on it saying it was a total game changer in the race. trump may have single-handedly altered the complexion of the virginia race much like he did in the two races in georgia back in january. but his strangest move came the following day on thursday. according to "the washington post," trump a speech to a room of senators, donors, and lobbyists during which he cast himself is the gop savior. "the post" reports unprompted he brought up an unsubstantiated claim that he had interactions with prostitutes in moscow before he ran for president. i'm not into golden showers, he told the crowd. you know the first lady, that one, he said i don't believe that one. i'm no political strategist here, but i'm pretty sure if you're giving an unprompted speech about golden showers, you're probably losing. or at least you should be for the sake of this country. this is a guy who maintains an iron grip on the party faithful and the establishment remains silent about these comments. republicans, i don't blame you for not wanting to wade into those waters. but, guys, you own him. for more, let's bring in our saturday night panel. michael a. cohen is the publisher of the truth and consequences newsletter. a sports and culture writer for the "athletic." alonzo boden is a comedian. and curt is an adviser to the congressional campaign committee and contributor to both the "usa today" and "l.a. times." great to have all of you with us. i'm sorry to start with this, alonzo. golden showers, what do you make of trump bringing back a story that we all wish stayed buried for the sake of humanity? >> wow. is this one of those things where if you denied it, you admitted it? trump has a special kind of crazy that #knows what he might say or where he might go with it. so i would say in the trump world, this is on brand. this is on brand. and his supporters will be fine with it and, you know, there's nothing -- i think if there's one thing we've learned, there's nothing that trump can say or do that would be so outlandish or so ridiculous that his supporters won't say, you know, he's right. he's got a point. so why not. you denied golden showers but can we hear from the russian prostitutes? that's my question. >> someone is working on it as we speak. trump single handedly made the virginia governors race harder for republicans. you got to think from a political strategist point of view, it's very maddening for the gop establishment. how much of a liability is it for a political party to have somebody like donald trump hijack the party with no message discipline? >> this is a pattern that we keep seeing repeat itself over and over. it's an act of narcissism coupled with self-sabotage. we saw this happen in georgia in the january special elections that resulted in democrats winning two senate seats and giving the senate majority. now we're seeing it play out the in virginia and really this is the republican party going forward, folks. if people haven't figured this out after four or five years of this, everything is about donald trump. donald trump makes everything about himself. he's incapable of surrendering the spotlight for five seconds. for the republican party, donald trump is your establishment now. steve bannon is your establishment now. people like ron desantis and greg abbott and josh hawley and all these trump wannabes are part of the establishment and glenn youngkin is trying to pass himself off as this kind of palatable version, wearing the fleece vest on his tv commercials and coming off as this dad character. but let's be clear. it's a character he's playing. his policies, his alignments, his alliances that he's formed are with white nationalists, racist, domestic terrorists like steve bannon. >> to this point, it's not only that he's kind of, you know, trying to be -- not trying to harm the republican party. he's deliberately harming the republican party because he's threatening to tell republican voters to stay at home in 2022 and 2022 unless his fraud hoax is solved first. that might seem like a hollow threat but it might not be after what happened in georgia senate races. how far are they willing will let trump push them to the streams? >> we've seen the answer, which is pretty far. there are not many limits to that. this is absolutely about narcissism and egotism. this is trump basically saying i can sabotage the republican party from within. nobody's going to do anything about it because nobody has done anything about it up to this point. and whether or not it actually results in electoral outcomes, i think that he's feeding his own ego by saying look how far these people are willing to follow me that they're willing to harm their own party by not denouncing him, by not calling him out for saying these things. it's himself feeding his own ego. >> democrats are having a challenging time with their own messaging. the big talker this week had to do with david shore. his piece contained analyses by david shore and he's obviously very influential. but to some, it's controversial. he argues that the democratic party is falling out of touch with moderate swing voters because it is largely staffed with college-educated liberals which he says is actively hurting the party's chances with the worst voters. as a result, democrats end up spending a lot of time talking about issues that matter to college-educated liberals, but not to the multiracial bloc of moderate voters that the party needs to win to secure governing majorities in washington. what do you make of this argument? are they democratic staffers too elite and out of touch? >> i think this is a little bit overstated, frankly. one of the things i noticed he says a lot is that as the kids might say, duh. that's what politicians have done for decades. there's nothing new about this. i do think that there is an element of the party definitely that focuses on more cultural issues, issues that appeal to more elite liberals, but i don't know if those are the issues that dominate in the competitive races. keep in mind, there are few competitive races left in american politics these days. in 2022, you're going to have maybe 30 or 40 competitive house seats, maybe half a dozen senate races. i tend to think politicians have more credit to be able to come up with the right message to appeal to their constituents. in some cases, that may be a more parochial message, if you're a new jersey congressman about i got money for the gateway tunnel that allows a commute time to be cut in half or i was able to get the deductions lifted on state and local taxes. i just think elasticity a lot to what david is saying. i think it's important to focus on popular issues. but i do think that his argument could be overstated. i also think that messaging -- the argument that we can do better messaging may not be the most effective argument to convince democrats because, frankly, in an era of intense polarization, it's not going to work to get out voters. if you see what's happening in virginia, in new jersey, in california, the message is, you know, anti-trump. that's what democrats are playing on and it seems to mobilizing voters to come out and vote in november. >> let me ask you about that. is that going to be enough to run on an anti-trump ticket, the fact that he ice still casting a large shadow on the republican party in virginia, perhaps other races as well. even when you think of some of the more down-ticket races, should that be enough for the democrats to mobilize their base? are are they going to have to put something out, particularly since they won the vote of independence in the last time around. they're going to need the independents, can they just run on an anti-trump platform? >> i don't think it's enough. you need to have a positive message too. it's pretty effective and pretty powerful for democrats. and i think, you know, we'll know a lot in a few weeks and see how successful -- terry mcauliffe has been focusing on donald trump. so is phil murphy in new jersey and newsom in california. this is one way to get their voters out to the polls. and i think, you know, that fear is a big motivator for trump supporters. i think fear is a big motivator for democrats. it was a big motivator in 2020 and in 2018. and i do think at this point democrats that may be the strongest thing they have to mobilize their trump supporters. >> certainly trumpism is rampant in the gop. alonzo, i got to ask you about some blowback that shore and others who have supported this have gotten, including this piece who argues that dems are preparing to abandon black voters again. what's your take? how would you rate how democrats have done so far in the first year they've had control across the board with some of the core issues that matter to black voters? they've stalled on getting the voting rights act done. we don't know where that's going. police reform also stalled. how do you think they're doing when it comes to trying to win over black voters that arguably delivered the white house to joe biden and georgia to the two senators? >> well, stacey abrams delivered, so yeah, that was definitely, you know, the power of a black woman and black voters. at best, it's lesser of two evils. yeah, we would love the voting rights act to be passed. you know, that's not just for black voters, but for all voters and for all marginalized voters. as far as police reform and violence, absolutely we would like something done. you know, i hate to sit here and pretend i speak for all black people, so i'm going to speak for myself. it is by far the lesser of two evils to have the democratic party versus the republican party. i mean, the republican party is, like, you know, the police have done nothing wrong and they're doing everything possible to stop people from voting. so this talk of the democratic party abandoning black voters and being against abortion is about killing black babies and all of this, this is all manipulative right-wing stuff. it's not like the right wing is suddenly going to help the black voters. it's not like the right wing is going to say, you know what? we're going to start investigating these police and get something done. black people aren't that dumb. so as the democratic party good? at best, yes. but at worst, the lesser of two evils. >> staffers want to pull the party in a more conservative direction, probably not going to get a chance to do it anytime soon as long as you have people like trump and others with their grip on the party. >> let's be clear. the republican party has taken itself from an organization that was built on some very specific public policy issues, things like being pro-life, things like, quote, unquote, fiscal responsibility, living within your means, bald budget, low taxation, pro-military, pro-business, et cetera. they've gone from that to a single-issue party. and that single issue is being against democracy. the single issue is believing in the conspiracy theory that the election wasn't legitimate in 2020. that is the only litmus test in the republican party is do you believe donald trump won the election or not. if your answer is i don't believe it, then you're os tra sized, you're outcast and kicked out of republican leadership as liz cheney found out. you are protested against in your own backyard, as we've seen over republicans in their districts experience who don't believe in the great lie. and so when a party has gone from something rooted in some semblance of public policy to the ether, there's really no coming back. there's no way to steer the ship back to substance and fact and truth. and they're doubling and tripling and quadrupling down on this single issue and it's going to dominant the entire party conversation as long as donald trump is center stage and being the loudest and most visible voice and as long as all the other republicans line up and try to kiss his ring, get his blessing and are afraid of him. >> it's not even so much about trump anymore as much as it is about trumpism because that's going to be be with us for a long time. we have a lot more to discuss. coming up, the fallout from dave chappelle's netflix special continues this week. my panel is back to discuss the outrage and the plethora of conversations we're having about it. the nhl announced all but four players are vaccinated against covid-19. but as one league excels, others ton struggle to get shots in the arm. >> some of the stories we're watching this hour, former president bill clinton is expected to be released from the hospital in southern california sunday. a hospital spokesperson saying clinton made excellent progress over the last 24 hours. former president was admitted earlier this week due to a urological infection. a texas deputy was killed in what authorities describe as an ambush shooting outside a houston bar early saturday morning. two other deputies were injured in that attack. officials say a person of interest is in custody . that person is not believed to be the shooter. and good news for fans of actor sir michael cane. he said icon his next role in a movie would be his last. but saturday, a change in tune. he now says he has not retired. i mean, why stop at 176 imbd film credits? more with ayman mohyeldin right after this. 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( abbot sonic ) in 2016, i was working at the amazon warehouse when my brother passed away. and a couple of years later, my mother passed away. after taking care of them, i knew that i really wanted to become a nurse. amazon helped me with training and tuition. today, i'm a medical assistant and i'm studying to become a registered nurse. in filipino: you'll always be in my heart. so this week the backlash against dave sha approximately's netflix special intensified. an employee was fired for sharing sensitive information and the employee may have been motivated by disappointment with netflix. we learned that netflix spent suspended three employees. and then defending chapelle in a memo to all staff saying we understand the concern is not about offensive to some content but titles that could increase real world harm adding, we have a strong belief content on screen doesn't directly translate to real-world harm. in part he said we understand that the concern is not about offensive to some content, but titles which could increase real-world harm. he added we have a strong belief content on screen doesn't directly translate into real-world harm. back with me once again, our panel. michael, let me start with you. what do you make of ted's arguing that netflix content doesn't lead to real-world violence? is that a valid argument as to why chappelle's special should stand or not? >> i mean, it's a tough argument. netflix is in a tough position to say otherwise. if they start arguing their content is going to cause people to commit violent acts, they invite a great deal of scrutiny of things they put on the air. it's hard to police comedy. people are going to push the envelope and have comedians that try to shock people, which chappelle has done for his entire career. so i think he's in a tough spot, but i don't know what other position netflix can take on this other than, you know, our content isn't going to cause people to go out and hurt other people. otherwise they put themselves in a position of having to police everything they do from the perspective of how people might interpret it. >> part of the letter defending chappelle, ted praises netflix's commitment to inclusion and cites that they have sex education, "orange is the new black." do you think netflix deserves more credit? and should netflix be judged on the totality of its content where it has advanced issues and conversations around some of these subjects? >> i think netflix absolutely has deserved some credit for the way that it has shaped the conversation around some of these issues. sex education, for example, is a phenomenal show that just shows queer people and people in various types of relationships as normal and it's normalizing that kind of view. at the same time, i think the issue here is that netflix didn't listen to its own employees, its own trans and lgbtq+ employees who brought up real concerns. so when you make a blanket statement like our content cannot cause harm, then the contra positive is our content cannot do good and i don't think they would ever assert that. >> alonzo, helen lewis had this to say. she called it a rorschach test. some people see chappelle as a rich comedian attacking a marginalized community. others see him as a black comedian attacking the elite consensus. are both sides valid? are there some that shouldn't be the subject of jokes. the way chappelle described it is he has no problem with trans and other communities. he has a problem with white people. >> well, you could look at it either way if you want, but his entire career has been black comedian poking fun at the elite class. it has been always been there for him. you know, there's been so much talk about this special. that says a lot in itself. you couldn't buy the publicity this is getting. listen, critics hated sticks and stones. it owen two emmys and a grammy. the last time i checked, the remote on the tv works. if you don't like dave chappelle, you don't have to watch. it's that simple. a lot of people who complained about this did not watch the entire special. they heard some trigger words toward the beginning and they made up their mind what it was going to be. at the end of the special he addressed a lot of things that came up and his opinions and his way of thinking and why -- when a comic is on stage, we're giving our point of view. if you were to look back at george carlin, when he talked about things like suicide, what would people say today? they would lose their minds. nobody said, hey, we got to shut down hbo because george carlin did pretty harsh suicide bits? no. listen, everyone's going to be offended by some joke, so you can't -- i just don't buy that standard of, well, we didn't like the words he used, so we should shut him down. as far as netflix, they've always protected their numbers. they don't want you to know how many people watched a given show, how much money they make. they've always been defensive of that. if an employee lets out that information, they're going to suspend or do whatever their internal discipline is for that employee. at this point, you know, we can continue this conversation forever about dave chappelle, but if you don't like him, just don't watch. comedians, we're going to keep talking. i wish i could create controversy. i'd be too big for your panel. >> you mean if you get big, you're not going to come back on the show? i'm offended by that, alonzo. >> see? you're offended right now. >> but you still have a standing invite. i'm not going to cancel you. come back anytime. let's talk about another media story that got attention this week. the daily mail reported that katie couric said he edited out statements by the late supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg in 2016. in those statements, rbg addressed black athletes like colin kaepernick who knelt, that the protesters show a contempt for a government that has made it possible for their parents and grandparents to live a decent life. man, those are some words right there. i don't know. what's your thought on that. what do you take about katie couric leaving those words out and the notorious rbg said them? >> i think just as a journalist, you have a responsibility to present to your audience the truth. playing the selective excerpt game is a slippery slope. when you start editing people's comments because you want to protect them or avoid backlash, i think that across the a journalistic ethical line and that's something every reporter or angry needs to figure out themselves what that line is. we're seeing recently with the investigation that the nfl has been doing with the washington football club and the different things that have come out from that. obviously things happened with former coach jon gruden that came out. i think that, again, if you're going to report on things and you're going to try to present people, you have to present them for their full truth for who they are, good, bad, indifferent, and let everyone decide for themselves. but when you try to play god, which is what it feels like katie did, it's going to create backlash. it leaves people wondering what else did you leave out, what else is there? now we're not sure. is this an incomplete work you're presenting and how often have you done this? >> excuse me. the controversy surrounding these emails, as curt was mentioning there. adam schecter about his submitting his article to the general manager, bruce allen of the redskins. as a journalist first of all but as somebody who writes about sports, what is your take on what adam did and should helping his job after what this scandal suggests? >> he's going to keep his job. i mean, i worked at espn for two years. there's no qualms about the fact that, you know, followers and the kind of traffic adam schecter drives is too big to drive at espn. from a journalist standpoint, there is this internal debate going on about whether access journalism in sports and whether transactional journalism breaking draft picks or trades, which is what schefter thrives in, if that makes awe journalist or a media personality. and we have a whole spectrum of entertainers, media personalities, and journalist when it comes to sports media. i personally think that was completely crossing the line especially when it comes from espn that has $1 billion deals with the league it covers. that's where the line gets blurred a lot of time. >> you bring up so many interesting points about the ethics and i can't help but wonder whether or not somebody like adam she haveter in the articles he's sending, it's one thing to trade information so you can be the first to break a trade or some kind of rumor about a player. it's another thing to submit your article for approval from a general manager. that just seems, you know, unethical to me as a journalist. don't go anywhere we have a lot more to discuss. coming up, why up to half of the chicago police department rank and file are in a dangerous place of being placed on unpaid leave. we'll tell you about that next. when you have an irregular heartbeat, it's more. it's dignity. the freedom to go where you want, knowing your doctor can watch over your heart. ♪♪ oh! are you using liberty mutual's coverage customizer tool? 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[ no audio ] >> we apologize. we seem to have an audio problem with megan's report. we'll see if we can get that fixed for you and bring you that fascinating report. it raises a lot of important questions about public workers and whether or not they should be mandated to get the vaccine. next, when it comes to team vaccination rates, some are being good sports and some are being bad sports. my panel is discuss this and more. ♪ breeze drifting on by you know how i feel. ♪ ♪ it's a new dawn... ♪ if you've been taking copd sitting down, it's time to make a stand. start a new day with trelegy. no once-daily copd medicine has the power to treat copd in as many ways as trelegy. with three medicines in one inhaler, trelegy helps people breathe easier and improves lung function. it also helps prevent future flare-ups. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. take a stand and start a new day with trelegy. ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy. and save at trelegy.com. bogeys on your six, limu. ask your doctor about they need customizedelegy. car insurance from liberty mutual so they only pay for what they need. woooooooooooooo... we are not getting you a helicopter. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ when our daughter and her kids moved in with us... our bargain detergent couldn't keep up. turns out it's mostly water. so, we switched back to tide. one wash, stains are gone. [daughter] slurping don't pay for water. pay for clean. it's got to be tide. i've always dreamed of seeing the world. but i'm not chasing my dream anymore. i made a financial plan to live it every day. ♪ ♪ find a northwestern mutual advisor at nm.com as a dj, i know all about customization. that's why i love liberty mutual. ♪ ♪ they customize my car insurance, so i only pay for what i need. how about a throwback? ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪ only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪ the brooklyn nets are set to begin if nba season tuesday without one of their star players. kyrie irving standing by his decision to remain unvaccinated. irving took to instagram live wednesday in his first public comment since he was barred from participating in games and practices. >> you think i really want the lose money? you think i really want to give me on my dream? in order to be on the team, i have to be vaccinated. i chose to be unvaccinated, and that was my choice. this is not a political thing or about the nba or the organization. it is about my life and what i choose to do. >> the nhl made a major announcement and all but four players in the league are vaccinated. my panel is back with me to discuss this. cavita, irving says his decision isn't political, but political figures like congresswoman marjorie taylor greene, they have voiced their support. she called the nba fascist and called them hypocritical for refusing to let irving play while allowing magic johnson to play. the coronavirus is a highly transmissible virus that can spread through casual contact. hiv, completely different, contracted through direct contact with bodily fluids. the comparison is just absolutely false and is actually embarrassing for someone like her to make. what does it say about his stance? >> first of all on taylor greene, not only is it a ridiculous analogy, but it's also history. it's revisionist history. the nba had a lot of platforms and put him through a lot of problems. isaiah thomas had a lot of things to say and he was forced into retirement after that. that being said, kyrie is being used as a political goal post, as a stand post for certain politicians to further their own agendas. whether he wants this to be a political issue or not, it has become one and he has unfortunately become the face of a lot of people who don't think he has the right to stand up for black lives matter but will still use him in an actual hilt stance in this case. i do want to point out that the nba is still 96th vaccinated and we're giving too much space to one player who is a star player in the biggest media market in the country. but 96% vaccinated. as michelle roberts, who is the executive director union told me, if every workforce in america were 96% vaccinated, we could have a chance at being coronavirus. >> our country was 96% vaccinated, this wouldn't be a conversation. he 40s money for every home game missed. according to espn, he could lose over $17 million in all this. but that still leaves him with $19 million in the bank. if this was an average person facing a vaccine mandate at their office or work, money might be a motivating factor, but that doesn't seem to be an issue here. how do you break through to someone like kyrie on this? >> the money factor even with kyrie versus other athletes is different. andrew wiggins with golden state wastation the same stand and when they say you're not going to get paid for home games, $9 million, suddenly his beliefs changed. you know what? i'm okay with the vaccine. kyrie is sticking to his guns. listen, i don't agree with him, but i respect it. and he understands that the penalty for this is he cannot play in the nba. the thing about refusing to be vaccinated, it's not that you have to be vaccinated, it's just that you can't participate in a given activity, right? i compare this to smoking. there was a time you could smoke anywhere. movie theaters, airlines, restaurants. and then they said no, society said no, you cannot smoke. now if you want to smoke, you've got to go down the block, under a bridge, wherever. they didn't say you can't smoke, they said you can't smoke in here. what he's saying is like hey, i will give up my job for my belief in not getting vaccinated. that's his choice. as far as making him a political figure, listen, he's not. and the hypocrisy of suddenly we're going to support him and then he says black lives matter, he's crazy, you know, forget the politicians on this. i think what he said in the instagram video is true. this is his personal choice and he may end up sacrificing an amazing career. >> it'll be interesting to see if he comes around. the thing i think is missing from this conversation, guys, is that i haven't heard kyrie provide what his threshold would be to actually be convinced. and i think that's an important part of this conversation. we all have our own vaccine hesitancy. does he want to talk to the scientists? what is it going to take from a data, research, science point of view that could persuade him, and would he be willing to have those conversations? i haven't heard him say that yet. it raises an interesting point about our perception about who is getting vaccinated. a statement from "the new york times" challenges our permissions writing, you may think older americans account for the population. they are more prone from misinformation watching fox news or maybe get their information online. but that's actually not true. 95% of the 65 plus population in the u.s. have received at least one dose, and research shows us that a significant portion of that unvaccinated population is actually just confused and concerned rather than absolutely opposed to the vaccine. so do you think somebody like kyrie irving speaking out for that section of the population is actually beneficial to get more people vaccinated? and what can be done to reach them? >> when it comes to kyrie irving, it is always about kyrie irving. this is the third team he's been on that he basically blown up. he did it with the cavaliers when he didn't want to be second fiddle with lebron james. with the celtics he's doing it again. it is the same kind of selfishness i've seen in his career before hand. if he was out there and wanted to be useful, he would encourage people to get vaccinated. or encourage people to do a great thing. instead, he's making it all about himself as usual. look, it's hard to use him as a model in this conversation. her article was useful because it points out there's lots of groups that aren't getting vaccinated for different reasons. we hear about the political reasons because they are trump supporters or whatever it may be. but lots of people aren't sure about the vaccine. she mentioned pretty good mothers or people who have just given birth are worried about the affects of getting vaccinated and not everyone has a doctor in this country to give them the right information. unfortunately, what's also happening, and i think we have to acknowledge this, is there's an entire news network, an entire infrastructure that is pushing out the message that these vaccines are dangerous. i look at tucker carlson telling viewers every single time don't get vaccinated. i assure you, he is vaccinated. he works for a company that mandates vaccines. that's part of the problem. people are out there pushing these dangerous messages. we have seen mandates work. $9 million. okay, fine. put it in my shoulder. in general, the mandates have been shown to succeed. >> let's talk about another major story in sports this week. las vegas raiders coach jon gruden stepping down after "the new york times" exposed emails in which he made homophobic, sexist remarks. you write this isn't just about words or people being sensitive to harmful language. and imagery against marginalized groups. this is about the real effect those notions have in the locker room and at the negotiating table. tell us a little more about that. what's the impact that some people may not be seeing from these e-mails? >> first of all, we saw a little bit of that impact when the player that is the first openly gay player in the nfl for the las vegas raiders took a personal day on wednesday. he basically said this was a lot to process and he asked for a personal day and the team granted it for him. i can't even imagine what it's like for carl nassif who has spoken very little since coming out, but one of the things that he has said was that he felt his locker room was extremely supportive and very empathetic. and then to turn around and hear things that his former coach have said about him and about people like him has to be damaging. at the same time, this is nothing new. this is a league that has norlzed normalized race lowering and with those context that these comments need to be taken. the fact that these comments are rampant need to be taken >> does the nfl have a racism problem? >> yes. we've known that since the fact of colin kaepernick's last game was in january of 2017. if someone is comfortable enough to put these types of things in writing and send it to people in the league, imagine what they're saying in the locker room. imagine what they're cadence and demeanor is like across his entire career. this is not a shock to anybody who's known jon gruden. people who do this in writing, this is how they talk and normally express themselves. and the fact that it took a week to get this guy out and exposed and dealt with tells you that there are a lot of problems with the nfl. the entire league should be investigated, frankly, at this point to see what their workplace culture is like. >> we'll have to leave it at that. thank you very much for joining us tonight. for you are a viewers in california, catch alonzo at flappers in burbank this weekend. you can tell them ayman sent you because we might not be able to get alonzo back if he blows up and gets a netflix special. you never know. one detroit reporter is setting the bar for future live hits. i'll explain it after the break. no sugar. no pizza. no foods you love. stressed? 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