And so, Congressman, could you talk a little bit to that to that connection about what your work here in D.C. is doing all the way back in your district and across the country?

Well, you know, you have a federal, state, local issue.

There are things that we do here in Washington that impact cities, that impacts workers.

Our challenge here is we have an administration that's absolutely out of control.

The rules don't apply.

The history doesn't apply.

It's all about one person deciding what he wants to do at 2 o'clock in the morning, and he tweets.

Grants for people to buy houses.

What do you, your reaction to the president making good on his threat to deny the press access to the White House?

Well, I think it's absolutely horrible.

As you know, in a democracy, there are certain freedoms that you enjoy.

One of them is the press.

Donald Trump ran for president.

He should be willing to meet the press at his home, White House or wherever.

But the public has a right to know.

CONGRESSMAN THOMPSON, I WANT TO ASK YOU NOW ABOUT THE NEW MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR VOTER INITIATIVE THAT THE CBC INSTITUTE IS GOING TO LAUNCH ALL ACROSS THE COUNTRY, BUT IN PLACES LIKE GEORGIA AND OUR HOME STATE OF this campaign and why the funding is necessary when the Democratic Party has so much money that they spend around the country, too? What is not being done? What void is the CBC going to fill here?

What is your response to something like that, besides the fact that it's blatantly illegal?

Well, it, uh, absolutely it's illegal, but Donald Trump is a con.

Uh, and so what you have is the con-in-chief doing what he's been doing ever since he's been president.

He's been lying to the people.

Uh, he's lied about this whole issue of affordability, whether it has to do with gasoline, whether it has to do with food, or anything.

He's just oblivious to the truth.

And so what we've been able to do is to, uh, put together a program, uh, and kick it off on this National Voter Registration Day, uh, called So Vote.

That's right.

Um, to me, this seems like the new threat.

threat.Well, that is the new threat, and as I said, but we cut a third of the labor force in CISA, which is the agency we created, uh, to address cyber threats, uh, to this country.

So again, uh, the, the investment is going opposite the threat.

And so the 9/11, uh, report said one of our big problems is we fail to imagine, uh, what's going on.

And so in, in, in not imagining, uh, what's going on, we don't address it.

We've done it.

But now this administration has cut the staff primarily responsible for cybersecurity hacks, uh, in, in America.

but is there anything on the schedule up ahead?

What was your biggest takeaway from what you heard?

heard?Well, the biggest takeaway is that ICE, for lack of a better term, is out of control.

Uh, they are carrying forth capturing citizens, uh, in this country, individuals who really should not be, uh, in their custody.

Uh, it's unfortunate that Mr. Guerrero was, um, a good person, going to work.

Uh, he was not on a list, uh, to be captured.

Uh, the vehicle he was driving was registered to someone else.

And ICE, in its rush to get its numbers up, has basically, for lack of a better term, killed an indi- innocent individual.

Do they make claims because they don't expect to be held accountable? How do you, how do your fellow lawmakers demand that accountability?

The question is,

what can we do going forward? And I think Donald Trump is doing more to organize the black and progressive community in this country than anything I've ever seen.

Because we now know what's the threat that's out here, and we know what's the penalty associated with not participating in the political process.

So everybody is asking Tavis, what's the plan? Everybody's saying the plan is to make sure you go vote, that you are registered first, and then you not just go, but you take other people.

And if you heard what the president said last week, he still does not care about telling lies.

He's saying that there are illegal people in this country who not only are registered, but they are voting.

Well, but you say, okay, you've got to prove some of this stuff.

and all the

Yeah.

And so I resist the fact that there are people who don't support education, don't support healthcare, trying to tell me that those of us who do, that we are maladjusted.

[shouting] [clapping]

Because you clearly have to understand that the system is not fair.

Everyone in here has had a situation occur to you that was simply based on your race.

Did you think that we would ever be in this moment?

If you had asked me that a month ago, I'd said hope springs eternal.

But after this egregious Supreme Court decision, uh, we in trouble.

And part of the reason we are here today is because we have to come together with a solution.

Uh, and it's not a short-term solution, uh, it's a long-term solution.

Because if, if our governor in this state say that a congressperson vote healthcare, housing, economic opportunity, education, his constituents is a reign of terror.

Give me a break.

That's right.

Let's be grateful it's just sleet and snow and not Antifa closing our streets.

Well, it's so unfortunate our governor is still locked in on Antifa, which you know is a philosophy, not even an organization.

But notwithstanding the governor's insensitive comments, we still have over 100,000 Mississippians without electricity.

We still have our major north-south interstate closed down in my district.

So it's a challenge.

I was out all day yesterday.

We have warming centers and churches, volunteer fire departments.

So are you guys willing to have a partial government shutdown that would affect FEMA if it means extracting some kind of reform on ICE?

own

eyes on what they did.

I'm going to pardon them.

And then on second thought, We back our law enforcement people.

Give me a break.

So this individual, and I want to get to something that happened recently that bothers me more than anything else, but he, Tavis, demonstrates on a daily basis that it's all about him, his family, and his wealthy friends.

It's not about democracy.

What do you say about that?