right now there is a growing revolt
against the Miss America Organization it
all stems from a letter by current Miss
America CaroMont claiming chairwoman
gretchen carlson and others have quote
bullied and silenced her and several
former Miss Americas are now calling for
Carlson's resignation including Miss
America 2004 and Orlando native Erica
Dunlap she joins us now it's good to
have you back baby fortunately these
aren't the best circumstances but you've
been vocal about what's happening right
now absolutely we are all the Miss
America's who are standing together
we're standing with Cara because we know
the inner workings of the organization
and we're most concerned about the
financial impropriety and more than
anything we need leadership that's not
only compassionate and willing to listen
to the Miss America but also someone who
can lead the organization financially
and make sure that we're still the
world's leaders the world's largest
scholarship organization for women and
you know you have talked a lot about
this I mean the Miss America
Organization for folks who don't know
it's really built on the back of
volunteers across the country at the
local level and you kind of apologized
on social media to save some of these
people like I'm sorry if you're
embarrassed but this has got to be aired
publicly and taken care of yeah
sometimes you have to rip the band-aid
off and kind of let things breathe in
order to begin a healing process and so
the volunteers there's thousands of
volunteers all across the country who
have dedicated decades to this
organization and so for us to be going
through this impasse it's really more
about the network of volunteers and it's
such a wide base of people that we want
to protect the integrity of all that
they've done to support these young
women in becoming miss state or miss
whatever their local title is and then
going on to the Miss America stage so
gretchen carlson did respond to these
allegations I know we have some part of
her response on a graphic and she is
denying these allegations I know you
guys were kind of going back and forth
and on Twitter a little bit I mean what
do you say about what she has to say
again I know we do have a graphic of
that that will probably pop up here in a
moment with a part of her response what
do you say to that my biggest issue is
that she is calling for Karam on the
current Miss America to speak to her
privately but she went on Twitter and
publicly exposed
her sentiments about her just disdain
for how car has handled things and so I
think that as a leader and as an adult
and as someone who has had a very high
profile situation in regards to you know
her me to movement expose I think that
she should know that this is a personal
matter that she should be more
considerate about it she should
definitely go to car herself personally
and try to speak to her and try to make
everything much smoother and she's not
doing that okay and there is that
graphic gretchen carlson saying she was
surprised and saddened by the letter
from our rainy miss america and she is
never bullied or silenced her actions
have consequences and i know you had a
strong reaction to her saying actions
have consequences than her commenting
that a lot of scholarships have been
lost as a result about this so exactly i
mean the fact that someone would say
actions have consequences that's a
threat in my opinion right not only that
but i think that it's really important
that we look at seventy five thousand
dollars is what she's claiming has been
lost and at the end of the day with the
the the type of organization this is
that's not a lot of money i mean we're
talking about forty five million dollars
when I was Miss America was given to
young women and scholarship assistance
and in Mithen that she is blaming the
current Miss America for a loss when in
reality since she's been chair it's been
her fiduciary responsibility to make
sure the organization is sustainable and
that we have more than seventy five
thousand that's not going to that's not
going to afford a lot of college
education for the entire network of
young women so Miss America herself went
whence fifty thousand so we have to be
able to sustain that and then some for
all the young ladies who are competing
what do you think needs to happen Erica
because I mean obviously this is getting
messy it's getting petty and that's not
what Miss America represents so what
needs to happen because this seems like
it's just getting worse by the second I
mean you had you had her goal you had
the current Miss America go on air this
morning at the risk of being dethroned
just two weeks out from the next pageant
and she's not backing off of what she's
saying she says that that $75,000 hasn't
even even been specified who pulled out
because she says sponsors are coming to
her and supporting what she's doing I
think most of the sponsors would be in
support of the current Miss America
she's such a bright young woman and even
the network of former Miss America's all
of us have so much - we're so grateful
to the organization for the things that
we've been allowed to do I couldn't have
the life that I have without the Miss
America Organization I recognize that
but I think that more than anything we
need to figure out how do we get this
particular board we need to move on from
them because they're not doing the job
I'm a part of several boards from health
care boards to University boards I've
been a part of many different board
systems and they're not doing what
they're supposed to be doing as trustees
you're supposed to incur to the
beneficiaries or to the constituents of
your organization and right now there is
a lack of confidence and there is a
no-confidence petition that's been going
around 21,000 people have signed this
and I think that that should be the
number one the number one issue we need
to make sure that people have confidence
in our board that they can do the job
all right Eric and I know you'll be in
Atlantic City September 9th in Chicago
all right we'll be following you on
social media whew okay well we will have
much more on that and it's on click
Orlando comm you can read up about the
former Miss America's call for action
just go to click Orlando comm / digital
features