The latest news and information from around the world with host Ana Cabrera. This. How seriously are you thinking ab it . Welcome to the ae files. Good to see you. Were here in your hometown of new orleans. In a Cafe Reconcile. Tell me why this is such a special place to you. Well, when i grew up, there was a Jesuit Priest who Half Finishing that run actually became the pastor of a downtown Inner City Church and started talking about ways to help kids and to connect people with money with people who needed money and he wanted to start a place where kids could have a Better Future and he said look, weathve got go to the toughest of the tough places and find the people who need help most. And the children and young people that are working here, kids that have lived the toughest of the toughst lives in america, some have been shot. Some of them with parents of children who have been shot. Some of them are young men and
against jim crow laws. Came to city council, led the fight to get the Confederate Flag out. Became mayor and Deseg Regated the workforce. You grew up around this, this issue. All your life. Yeah, i cant remember a moment in my life where race was not a part of it. It wasnt all reconciliation. It was a lot of battles. My dad really was very interesting because he was 29 years old. Married. He had four babies at home. My mother, who was the same, had nine children in 11 years. Both still alive. Both happy. They have 38 grandchildren now, but back in 1960 when things were really intense, how he found the courage to vote against the segregation. He was only one of two legislators. I asked him, what were you thinking about . He said well, i was really fighting for my friends. He had befriended a young man on the first day of law school
whose name was norman fan sis. He was better looking, faster and smarter than everybody else and i asked my father, he said whel we informed me, he taught me about what it was like to walk in somebody elses shoes. I Wasnt Just Fighting for norman. I was fighting for my right to be with my friends. We just kind of grew wup that ethos. There have been a number of different examples where white people have been really angry at us. You experienced that as kid. I kid. When i was 13 years old. Back then, it was white people in the chamber really getting after the city of new orleans because it was becoming majority africanamerican. It was way on its way to it. There were rabid people in the streets yelling and screaming about integration. The story is that one afternoon, father harry thompson, the same priest that helped start this facility with the community, came to my classroom and he said you know, i need to walk you
ayosz cross the street to the gym because theres been a death threat. When i got over there, i was in the locker room. All my friends run in and say theres a woman outside saying shemts to kill you. It was this angry white woman who was just as angry as she could be. She went to reach in her purse and one of my friends said she has a gun. They scattered. Standing there by myself and she took out a card and threw it at me. It had written on it, your fathers an n lover. He ruined the city. You should be ashamed of yourself. I wasnt an adult, but i was old enough and mature enough to kind of get what that was. Even back then, it was part of all of our lives. I wasnt unique. That happened to lots of people in the city. What was striking, you say back then. But when you made the decision to remove confederate statues from places of honor here in new orleans, you met with some of those very same reactions. Your children met with some of those very same reactions. That was 40 years later. That makes you understand that were not really through the issue of race. President obama got elected, the country went oh, wow, we elected our first black president. Now were past it. Thats not true. Every day in america, as we are witness to, africanamericans continue to suffer discrimination. We continue to tear ourses apart on the issue of race and on the issue of race in america, which is of course the greatest fault line in american politics, i have just come to learn you cant come over this, go around it. You have to go through it. You have to go through it and talk through it. I made a political miscalculati miscalculation. I had assumed that we were further along than after the shootings in charleston. When Governor Haley and the entire folks in South Carolina finally took down the flag, i said you know, the confederate
flag. Number one, t time to take the monuments down, but secondly, everybodys going to get it. And everybody didnt. It was much too hard a fight to have in the year that we had it than we should have. In fact, you got elected with overwhelming support and reelected with overwhelming support of both white and black residents of the city. Your support among whites in new orleans dropped by half. The city was racially united when i came. When i got reelected, it was for the most part, the same. When i took those monuments down though, it really, really, really touched people in a much deeper way. And i didnt lose all of my white support, but i lost half of it. In a way that will never come back to me. What was curious to me as a politician, ive been involved for 30 years. I meant when you both had hair. It was a long time ago. But and i had voted on some tough issues. I have had people come up to me and say i didnt like the way you voted ed on the abortion i on capital punishment, but i generally like you and i think youre a good guy and ill vote for you again. On this thing, it was much deeper than any other action. What people said to me, ill never, ever support you again which i thought was really curious. You wrote that todays peshl square is teeming with hatred we havent seen since the 1960s. Why do you think that is . I dont really know. Isnt it to say its all because of donald trump . He seized on something and exploited it. Im not a fan of the president s, but its not his cause. He didnt cause it. Hes a symptom of it. Hes a peft fit for exacerbating it and he knows that strategically, division is
working for him even though its working against the country. But theres a much deeper thing going on. So the reason i dont want to concentrate for the moment on this, just on President Trump, other than to acknowledge that he has been come plolice it and he has put the accelerator on it is because its a bigger issue for all of us and t not just him, but it is worth noting that the germ, the seed of all of this is racial hatred in a sense of White Supremacy, which is why in the book, i talk a lot about david duke and when david duke was in the legislature with me white supremacist. I sat with him. He was a neo nazi. Leader of the cku klux klan. Got elected in 1990 and subsequent to that, ran for governor and for the United States senate and in one or both of those election, got two out of every three white votes. So i have said in the book that were not seeing anything there on the National Level that we havent seen in louisiana relating to that racial issue, but its critically important. It is critical to talk about the cause of White Supremacy because we have seen examples in our history. That when one group of people think theyre superior to another, atrocities occur and one of them is slavery. One is a holocaust, one is apartheid. You can see examples of where we as human beings have allowed ourselves because we didnt check our worst impulses to get to a place that create very dark moments in history. You actually said the parallels between david duke and President Trump as demagogues are breathtaking. His make America Great again sloegen is the dog whistle of all time. Yeah so if you spent any time in the south, and you go speak to most people and particularly africanamericans, and you say i want to make America Great again. Theyll go, i want to make America Great, well, me, too. But if you put the comma and the
where do i put it . In my belly. vo one family. Different unlimited plans. Starting at 40 per line on the network you deserve. Oh oh ozempic® vo people with Type 2 Diabetes are excited about the potential of onceweekly ozempic®. In a study with ozempic®, a majority of adults lowered their blood sugar and reached an a1c of less than seven and maintained it. Oh under seven . vo and you may lose weight. In the same oneyear study, adults lost on average up to 12 pounds. Oh up to 12 pounds . vo a twoyear study showed that ozempic® does not increase the risk of major cardiovascular events like heart attack, stroke, or death. Oh no increased risk . Ozempic® ozempic® should not be the first medicine for treating diabetes, or for people with Type 1 Diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. Do not share needles or pens. Dont reuse needles. Do not take ozempic® if you have a personal or Family History of medullary thyroid cancer, multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Syndrome type 2, or if you are allergic to ozempic®. A book that youre ready to share with the world . Get published now, call for your free publisher kit today i worked if r r a guy who made a speech that kalt pulted him into the national conversation. Theres not a liberal america, a conservative america, there is the United States of america. You made a speech when you took these statues down. These celebrate a fictional confederacy, ignoring the death,
enslavement, terror that it stood for. Why were people so hungry for the message of that speech . When i gave this speech, i gave this speech in new orleans to a local audience. I was delivering a speech not only to the people of new orleans but to White Working Class people as an invitation to see things in a different way, to explain the facts that had never been explained to them. To talk about what the real story is. And inviting them to think about things dimpbltly in an effort to reconcile and i was really shockeded that anything that i said went viral because as you know, 30 years of public service, you give a lot of speeches and some you think are pretty good. So i want to ask you this and i dont want you to go into politician evasive tactics here. People talk about you as a
president ial candidate and partly because of this message and because there is this we are deeply divided. How seriousry are you thinking about snit. Couple of thing, it would be disingenuous to tell you i dont hear that when a lot of people call and ask and talk, but ive been doing this for 30 years, so i listen to that with skeptical ears. I dont know how hard it is to get elected and how hard the job is and how many people there are that would like to do the same thing. So when youre thinking about this, when you say seriously, i am not doing what other people are doing, which is to say im not running then preparing to r or setting up all these apparatuses. The most important thing, not trying to skirt the issue, especially given the way the president handled himself on the
world stage where he humiliated the United States of america with putin, collusion in motion. Is what we witnessed. That has got to be clear even to some President Trumps most ardent supporters. Those who supported him because of trade or the economy. That was a bridge too far. That you cant have a coach plan for the other team. We just witnessed something no president would have done. You know what, im not interested in figuring it out anymore. President trump has us all spinning around in circles trying to figure out why he does what he does. We need to focus on what his baifr is and whether it makes america stronger or weaker. I think he weakened us in a way weve be never been weakened before and he should be ashamed of himself for the way he handleded it. More importantly, putting that issue aside, we need to work around him as a country and how to contain him. Hard to work around the president. But its not impossible and it is possible for the speaker of the house to grow some courage and to start checking the president s power and there are lots of different ways to do that. Some republicans have to hold their noses and vote for democrats. Because congress are going to have to change him and you know what, if those folks dont do their job, they have to change them because this Isnt About Party anymore. This is about country. The Republican Party has always prided itself on being the family of faith, family and country although i think the Democratic Party is as well. How do you main thatain sense om a true patriot when youre allowing the leader to give to russia whatever it is they need. Wow, reagans turning over in his grave. So you think this is a watershed moment in the last. I have no idea. How many watershed moments can you have before people, we know this one feels different. A lot of them have felt
different to me. Everything we thought we knew about politics has not come to be. There is a Silver Lining and its that the country is tougher and more resilient. At some point this time though, it becomes clear and obvious whether the president is working on behalf of the American People or against them. Whether hes making a stronger or weaker, whether or not were headed in the right or wrong direction t. More important question is why his base will stay with him no matter what. Even if they will, it is incumbent on the people not in his base, but like him for certain things to finally say listen, this doesnt work anymore. It doesnt matter how high the stock market is or what the return to the Shareholder Ss or what the unloimt rate is. You cannot basically undermine the essence of what the United States of america because i cant last for long time. Leave yourself out of it for now. What kind of candidate do you
think needs to run in 2020 to be an effective counterpoint. Thats an excellent question because the Democratic Party can always be countied on to shoot itself in the foot. If it was a constructive primary, then as you know, the Democratic Party much like the Republican Party in a Family Food Fight will have a number of different it rations. You have the progressive wing of the party really tilting to the left then you have basically, the moderates then you have people that are kind of fallen in both of those categories to the inside and outside players. Just for me, this notion of having a new, young, macron come along that may happen. Im more of a traditionalist. I would like somebody with great experience. I would like somebody b that could restore americas stat chur in the world in day one. Somebody b that knows what theyre doing because theyve done that before. That can stabilize and just
rebalance the country for four years. Sounds like youre describing joe biden. I think i am, honestly. If i had to pick today and he could take over tomorrow and life would be a lot better for everybody and plus he understands Working Class folks. In a way that most people dont. But for my liking, i think stability, i think certainty, i think a good world view. I think experience, all that stuff should matter more to the world at the moment. A number of mayors, what youre describing doesnt seem to speak to the mayors. No ones ever been elected president as a mayor. Thats true. Do you think mayors have the experience necessary to run the country . Yes. But i want to stay clearly about this. If we were in a normal time and were not in a normal time, were in an ab normal time. My view might be different about whos who should ascend. As it relates to mayors though, i dont think theres another job in america that prepares you to be president than being a mayor. Because mayors execute every day. They are in fact ceos. Youre also more exposed. You get immediate feedback from your constituents. I have gotten at least more times than id like to, but in the morning, if my wife says we dont have any bread, can you run to the store, grab some milk. By the time i get out of my car, i have been spoken to in ways that would make you blush if you did something you didnt like. When i go to the cleaners, at the market, at the restaurant. What part to Sarah Huckabee sanders, thats happened to me. I didnt like that. That made me really uncomfortable. Obviously dont agree with sarah
huckabee sanders on but shes doing a job and there has to be some private space for individuals that are working on behalf of the public to live. I flul i believe that people ought to have a right to protest. And reasonable time, place and manner. You can be as vociferous, as passion that the as you want, but at some point, there has to be a line because then its impossible to work. Plus, i thought it was just plain rude. I dont think we have to, were not going to beat them by being like them. Whats your reaction to the Movement Among some democrats to abolish i. C. E. . Thats a bad idea. As you know, when i was mayor, Consent Decree on our police department. We had to completely reform the way the police interacted so it became a part of the community but we never said were going to get rid of the police department, we said we were going to fix it. The border agents, all of them were operate iing at the direct
at the president of the United States. Everything theyre doing is at his direction. Thats where the problem is. So i would not abolish i. C. E. I would refocus their attention ton making sure they take care of people and not hurt people. I really cant thi