Conservatives engaged in their
typical theatrical meltdown over
Lebron James and his tweet about
the police shooting and killing of
a 16 year old in Columbus, Ohio.
That was the story of
Makayla Bryant that we talked about
on the show just yesterday.
Now in that story, the victim
the person who got shot and killed,
was seen on body cam footage with
a knife in her hand and
the person Police Department is
arguing that they had no choice but
to use lethal force in order to
save the life or the safety of the
person that she was charging at.
Now they have non lethal weapons.
We talked about how you don't have
to immediately go to a gun and
a lethal weapon in order to
respond to that situation.
But LeBron James was upset about
that as many people across
the country were.
And on Wednesday afternoon,
the Los Angeles Lakers star tweeted
a photo that appeared to show
the officer who was involved in the
shooting of Brian with the caption
quote your next #accountability.
And that's when the fake
outrage ensued because as we know,
the right wing has nothing to
offer you other than fake
outrage over what African American
celebrities and athletes are saying
about a very real problem in this
country which is police killings.
So Tom Cotton is one of those
people he tweeted LeBron James is
get this, inciting violence against
an Ohio police officer, this is
disgraceful and dangerous is
the NBA okay with this is twitter.
Now mind you this is coming from a
Republican lawmaker who made excuse
after excuse for the Capitol Hill
writers who were assaulting police
officers, Capitol Police officers.
This is the same guy who had no
problems with that,
as you had those writers chant
things Hang Mike Pence, who was
the vice president at the time.
I mean, this is a person who aids
and abets violence by refusing to
do anything about gun control, even
when it comes to popular proposals
like universal background checks.
So for him to pretend because
that's what this is,
this is pretending.
For him to pretend as if LeBron
James's his tweet is advocating for
violence is pretty rich and
also incredibly disgusting.
Which is why I was personally upset
at the fact that LeBron James ended
up taking that tweet down.
And then he explained why Jake,
I want to just read you his final
tweet on this, where he says,
I'm so damn tired of seeing black
people killed by police.
I took the tweet down because it's
being used to create more hate this
isn't about one officer it's about
the entire system and
they always use our
words to create more racism.
I'm so desperate for
more accountability.
It was so obvious what
he was referring to in that first
tweet day want justice when he's
saying your next he's obviously
referencing the fact
that Derek Chauvin, who murdered
George Floyd by kneeling on his
neck for more than nine minutes,
was found guilty on three charges.
That's what he was
referencing there.
But anyway.
>> Yeah, so couple things here.
First of all,
he used the word accountability.
It's not really a demagoguing word.
>> It's very dangerous word for
Republicans.
They don't like it.
>> Yeah, well, that's true.
Trump and
his acolytes hate accountability.
So second of all,
we catered to the right wing way of
thinking way too much.
So the right wing things.
Black people telling us they've
been getting abused by cops and
shot by cops and they're unarmed.
We never believe them.
All these years,
hundreds literally,
now hundreds of years.
We never believe them.
We think they're all liars, right?
Now, there's video evidence of it
happening over and over again.
We still largely
don't believe them.
And we think that violence that
the cops are doing is good
to do serving,
they're serving the people, okay?
The cops are looking out for
us, okay?
So you like that violence,
you encourage that violence against
unarmed people with from a guy who
has a gun and a badge, okay?
But when LeBron James asked for
legal accountability, I can't
believe he's in favor of violence.
It's ironically the same exact
racism.
Tom Cotton sees LeBron James a go,
black person must be
violent, right?
He sees a white cop killing a black
person thinks no white cop, good
guy the unarmed black man who was
killed nine out of ten times, no,
man, he wants to smoke pot, etc.
So now we shouldn't appease these
guys at all.
Now I want to give you important
context as to why LeBron James is
so mad because one of the things
that frustrates me about the media
coverage of this particular story
Is that, they're making it seem
like it's a standalone story.
Now, not all of them and they,
of course give the context of
George Floyd and some of the recent
shootings like Dante Wright.
But they are making it appear like
the killings of unarmed black men
started with George Floyd.
No, I have been for so long,
in fact, on this show,
I criticize LeBron James for not
doing enough and not saying enough
when it was happening over and
over again in Ohio.
And maybe that frustration is built
up with him and now he feels like
you know what, maybe I'm empowered
to that and, maybe they
can't really take my power away.
Of course LeBron,
of course you're mega rich.
It's about time that he did this
and don't back down.
>> Yeah. >> So he's from Ohio.
He's from Cleveland.
LeBron James is.
So what happened in Ohio recently
now this shooting was in Ohio.
But again, the Makayla Bryant
shooting, she did have a knife.
And she was lunging as someone and
so it's a complicated case that one
is complicated, right?
So but they make it seem like okay,
well, now we're going to judge all
black people and their anger and
frustration based on this
case alone.
No, look at Tamir Rice.
12 year old, we're going to show to
you now, 12 year old in Ohio has
a toy gun and a park.
The cops pull up,
shoot him dead, two seconds flat.
Two seconds flat.
They didn't ask.
Hey, are you wait you look
small you look young.
Is that a toy?
Is it not a toy?
>> No questions asked.
>> That's the thing.
>> They never even said,
put your hands up,
freeze you're under arrest.
Remember how they used to say that?
No a 12 year old boy they come up
and shoot him dead.
Oops it was a toy gun.
So now more in Ohio.
John Crawford,
we don't Wal-Mart, BB gun that he
was going to buy from Wal-Mart.
He picked it up from the store,
they were selling it there.
And a white guy reported him,
it's dangerous black
guy with a gun cops show up.
He puts the gun down,
they start shooting anyway.
He's in a panic.
He comes back murdered right there.
When the whole thing took six
seconds.
They didn't ask hey,
are you buying something?
Freeze, you're under arrest.
Who are you?
They see the BB gun on the ground.
They kill him anyway.
>> Yeah, exactly.
Exactly and the point that I want
to make about LeBron James and his
decision to take the tweet down.
The reason why I found it so
upsetting is because I realize
that he isn't fully aware
of his influence and power because
the fact that LeBron James,
Colin Kaepernick, these stars,
these athletes get the kind
of low back and
backlash they do for right wingers
is because they're influential.
They're literally seen by people
as living heroes because of their
talent, because of their abilities,
just all of their success.
Their fame, exactly so,
that's pretty powerful.
And so what Republicans do is try
to bully people these so
called free speech guys, right?
They pretend to care so
much about free speech.
What they do is bully powerful and
influential people like
Colin Kaepernick like LeBron James.
So there'll be silent on these
issues because Republicans want to
have the dominant narrative they
want to dominate the narrative on
these issues.
And honestly, look at republican
I'm sorry, Democratic lawmakers,
you think Democratic lawmakers are
good at talking about these issues.
You saw how Nancy Pelosi responded
to Derek shoguns guilty verdict.
She said something that was
incredibly embarrassing about how
George Floyd sacrificed his life
for justice.
That is not the right way to
handle the situation.
But if you have powerful people who
especially young people look up to
like LeBron James speaking out on
these issues, it has power.
And I want him to realize that and
not get bullied into taking tweets
down or remaining silent on issues,
you shouldn't,
he should definitely speak out.
>> Yeah, quick clarification,
LeBron James played in Cleveland,
he's from Akron Ohio and
Tamir Rice was killed in Cleveland.
So if you're new to this and
you didn't realize that black men
were getting shot all over
the country by police.
Okay, well, we just showed you
the tip of the iceberg.
We've covered dozens and dozens of
stories on this show alone,
let alone all the ones that where
there wasn't video footage, and
let alone all the ones that
happened in the past.
So if you come at LeBron or us,
right, anyone saying, yeah, you
should apologize for being angry
and putting cops lives in danger.
The people being shot and killed or
the citizens, but
to the people like Tom Cotton,
the Republicans they don't matter.
Their lives don't matter.
That's why the slogan is black
lives matter?
Because to people like Tom Cotton,
they don't, and too often for
police, they don't,
we've seen it with our own eyes.
You just saw it with your own eyes
and so that's what LeBron is mad
about and honestly,
he should be even more mad.
If they use all of their
power together,
they could have a giant impact.
>> Yes. >> And by the way, one
of the things they should ask for
is accountability from Democrats
because Democrats constantly talk,
but they never pass any bills.
They know all the shootings and
nothing ever changes because the
Democrats don't have the courage
to act and the vicious racist that
are in the Republican Party are
constantly bullying the Democrats
into complete inaction.
>> I mean, Biden promised a Police
Reform Commission not to pass
legislation but to study the issue
and he backed out of that, guys.
He backed out of that.
>> It's pathetic commission and
political talk is I'm not going to
do a damn thing about it.
>> And he wouldn't even do that,
he wouldn't even carry out
the commission.
So look,
we're honest about both sides here.
And so democrats certainly bear
some responsibility when it comes
to the inaction from
the federal government.
But again, and it doesn't just have
to do with LeBron James.
It goes for everyone,
understand your power and wield it.
Don't be afraid.
>> Yeah.
Last thing that's now more
political Democrats have this awful
strategy of when we get an office,
we won't do anything.
So you'll have to vote for
us the next time around.
You're going to get caught.
So you're not going to do anything
about police shootings,
you're not going to do
anything about gun violence.
You're not going to do anything
about marijuana legalization and
all the people who put millions of
people that were wrongly put into
jail because of that, and
continue to be put into jail.
And because of that,
you're not going to
do anything a $15 minimum wage, and
I can go on and on and on.
And then you're going to come back
and tell us elect this again so
that we could do nothing again.
This time we'll do it.
No, you pull the football too
many times,
either do your goddamn job or just
admit you're just a republican and
this is all kabuki theater.