 Georgia, Georgia, Georgia. Welcome. I'm Mike Abadi, and this is All Eyes on Georgia, episode two. And I'm extremely honored today to welcome Maynard Eaton to our virtual studio here. And Maynard is an eight-time Emmy Award-winning Atlanta journalist. He's been reporting on Atlanta civil rights and Georgia politics for 40 years now. He's also the National Communications Director for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He's a gifted interview. He's the host of Talk to Me. It's excellent. And he's got connections to community television in Georgia with People TV and the Atlanta Video Network. So just thrilled you could make the time today, Maynard. Thank you, Michael. Appreciate it. I've never been on a camera in Vermont. Yeah, well, also on the worldwide web. So actually, I've been visiting with the Georgia Public Access Station. So hoping we get some traction down there, because this has been some really good conversations already. And I mean, the big news this week is voting started Monday. And I'm just wondering if you've got your plan to vote, figure it out, and what your options are. If you have an absentee option, you have an early option, you have a day of option, how are the rules there for how to get your vote in? Well, personally, I mailed my absentee ballot yesterday. Nice. It's done. And I'm sitting back watching the frenzy early voting. But that's the key to this whole thing, this whole runoff, is who's going to turn out to vote? That's the question? That's the turning away at trying to get folks back to the polls, and particularly in a black community, because the numbers often dwindle when on runoffs are returning to the polls. This has been such a frenzied year with voting, special elections, presidential elections, all that. So to get them back again is going to be a feat. But enthusiasm seems to be there. And the commercials are certainly driving home the point of voting, that's for sure. Right. And yeah, the dynamic is a little different than your typical runoff, where Republicans tend to show up for every vote for dog catcher and everything. But there's a bit of a rift on the Republican side with, well, your governor's getting beat up by Donald Trump just about regularly. Certainly, your secretary of state has taken some hits from both Republican candidates, Lefler and Perdue. And I don't know if there is this sort of a bit of a slog on the Republican side. They're not finding the unified message and the enthusiasm. If that might depress their turnout. Do you have any read on that? Well, there's been a lot of visits by Vice President Kemp, not Kemp, but Vice President Pence and others in through Georgia trying to rally the vote. But again, the president's division amongst, on one hand, criticizing, polarizing verbally against Kemp and Rothen's brother has made some people feel like they're going to stay home. Others have said do not vote. Deep right wing forces have suggested not to go out and vote. So there's a turmoil within the Republican party over the outcome of the election, whether or not to go back to the polls. There's infighting to be sure, which is interesting. And Rasmusberg has been beat up a lot, not only by the president, by black voter groups. He just had a ruling yesterday by a federal judge suggesting that a group called Black Voting Matters, Black Voters Matter, have filed suit along with, based on a report by investigative journalist Greg Pallas, saying that 197,000 Georgians had been illegally purged from the polls. The lawsuit ruling came out just, they just had a news conference a few minutes ago suggesting the judge says, it's a little too late to do that. I think you should meet again. Well, today they're saying, today they're saying, let's meet, let's do it. Let's cleanse these, they gotta find out who actually has been left off the polls. That's what the court said. We can't determine who has been re-registered or who has been left off illegally. So they need to sit down and go over the list. Black Voters Matters and other civil rights attorneys wanna have it done now. There's been no decision on when that's gonna happen. But again, Rasmusberg is getting it from Democrats and Republicans. I mean, he's a guy who's been under the gun, believe me. But rightly so, I believe. There's been some shady things on both sides. The president alleges voted irregularities and three years ago, so did Stacey Abrams, who was challenging Brian Kemp. I could become governor, came with an eye shadow of winning. At the time, Brian Kemp was the secretary of state. And so many alleged he purged a lot of voters. Voter purging, voter suppression is a major, major issue in the black community. Right, well, that is a really fascinating aspect of these charges of voter fraud coming from the right, coming from Trump. When they go to court, they really don't, they don't have much. Maybe what, signature matching they've got? I mean, but when you actually pull back, the just the structural built-in voter suppression is real. You've got Biden winning by 0.3%. You've got to wonder if there was better access to the polls, if that would have been two or three or 4%. That's right, that's right. But it seems that the charge from the Trumpists that there's widespread voter fraud, throw out all the votes, send some different set of electors along, may shake Republicans' faith in even bothering. I don't know. You know, the thing that got me about throw out the election results, that didn't mean throwing out some Republicans who won as well. That's what got me. Right, right, it's all the same ballot. That is a very good point. Not just a president on that ballot, that's right. Yeah, and actually speaking of the president, he visited, is it Valdosta, Valdosta a couple of weeks ago? Yes. You've had Sarah Palin showing up, you've had Louie Gohmer, you've got Joe Biden this week showed up. I'm just wondering how the press is covering all these visitors that have suddenly got terribly interested in Georgia. Well, the whole nation is watching, including Vermont, including you. But this is such an important race. And I want to tip the Valdosta power in the Senate. You have two dynamically different sets of candidates here on the Republican side and the Democrat side. And they're funny to see them running together, you know, in a sense, they're like teammates. Right, they're pairs, yeah. They're pair, and it's, so yeah, there's a national interest in it, consequential political national outcome on it, and it's all kind of sitting right here in Georgia. We've had this kind of political spotlight since Jimmy Carter, really. Yeah, well, you know, thank you for mentioning him because I saw Louie Gohmer, he's a rep from Texas. And one of the things he said when he visited was, you know, vote the Georgia way, and I don't mean the plains Georgia way. Like he sort of, you know, actively dissed Georgia's president, thinking that would help. Like that's what really amazed me. Like he actually thought that would gain traction beating up on Jimmy Carter like that. Well, let me ask you some of your mind. I'm used to asking questions, not answering them. Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. We can go both ways. Let me ask you, why do you have an interest in this? Why all eyes on Georgia? What's prompted the interest of Vermont viewers and all that? You know, just, we've just been hammered the last four years by, you know, corruption and nonsense and incompetence. And then you throw up a global pandemic on top of that where you need government to function. And hope against hope that the executive branch turns to be functional is, I really did think that the Democrats would do better in the Senate and a lot of really races that weren't terribly close in, you know, Maine, Iowa, Montana. Was Doug Jones gonna hold on next door in Alabama? A lot of excitement about Jamie Harrison. So Biden wins, you know, clearly, but it's going to be... But Republicans won too. They really did, they just lost the presidency. Yeah, yeah, they gained in the House and they are, you know, they've got a hold in the Senate right now. And it would be really difficult to imagine President Biden working with McConnell and a Republican Senate. I mean, that's just, I actually saw an interview with David Perdue saying, you know, Mitch McConnell is a real negotiator like Joe Biden's a real negotiator and their old friends. And, you know, he was presenting a picture of you can vote for me and Lefler and we'll still have a functioning Senate, we'll have a functioning government. But I think that's just, I think he's just making noise. I don't think we'll have a functional government unless the good people at Georgia send Warlock and Ossoff to the Senate. So that's a weighty responsibility. But this race is still Trump versus Biden in a sense. I mean, because they're, I mean, Lefler and they're running right along the president's coattails. Anything he says they do, they laugh, they repeat is dead out of the president on everything. I mean, they're so afraid to stand out and all. And this race has become, not so much about local issues. Some people have criticized Warlock, for example. Thinking about reparations or anything related to the poor, something that any quote unquote black issue. This course, the system dictates, I mean, it's a national race, they're kind of controlled by the process. I mean, they don't make their commercials that are made for them, they appear in them. It's, again, it's become a race based in Georgia, but it's run by the national parties, that's for sure. And the national parties reflect the interests of the Democratic Party nationally and President Trump for Republican. Right, and if Georgia did not have the unique, you've gotta hit 50%, you'd be sending Purdue and Warlock to the Senate. And McConnell would still be Senate Majority Leader, would still be a Republican Senate. So it's fascinating that this 50% threshold creates a situation, and I don't know if it's a hope against hope, where potentially the Senate flips. But wouldn't it, correct me if I'm wrong, but even if it's Warlock goes and goes and what's the name, wouldn't the Vice President Harris have the time to break the vote? Right, right, it would be 50-50 and she'd be the 51. And that's all, you know, all Senate chairperson ships, I mean, everything would flip. So it's really... It's consequential, isn't it? Yeah, there's never, I mean, there's never been an election like it. So actually in our last show, we really were left with the unanswered question of a lot of hope, you know, about would Florida vote for Biden? Again, Jamie Harrison, you got Doug Jones next door. A lot of, your neighbors didn't do what Georgia did, so what was different about Georgia this year? What was the sort of X-factor that turned Georgia blue in the presidential this year, yeah. Stacey Abrams and her Fair Fight Organization and the other organization she has, there was an aggressive, passionate, persuasive, get out the vote campaign, a registered campaign. Thousands, I don't have the exact numbers in front of me, but there were more black folks, more people on the polls now that have ever been before, that there have been some, several hundred thousand that registered and are gonna vote in this runoff, new voters. This has been the door to door, even under the pandemic, phone to phone, computer to computer. I get calls every day, have you voted, have you registered, you know, it's a, I think that's been the difference, it's been a, and she promised this fight when she barely lost the camp, and she has never stopped, created two organizations to do that, and they've been passionate and committed to doing just that. It's been a, and it's all you heard about for two or three years, and it's, and people have a sense of, it's our obligation now to vote, or to be registered to vote. There's not the fate of complete at once was. Now, many people, especially poor people and people of color in Georgia, just say it's not gonna make a difference. Well, they saw how close Stacy came, it could have made it. My vote could have made a difference, you know? And I think now there's a, you know, the old South, there's not the old South anymore. People who moved to Atlanta and parts of Georgia, urban Georgia, that have not from here, necessarily, or coming back home to where their family roots are, and they have a different perspective on life and things. So, and in Atlanta, politics has always been the drum beat of this town, always. But now, even people in poor communities are saying, registering, not just for my councilman or state legislator means a difference in how the country is run. That's what I think is ringing true here in this race. For now, for once in a lifetime, perhaps, a Georgia vote in Auburn Avenue could make a difference in how the Congress is. Folks, you know, that's, wow, really. My vote could change how the Congress makes decisions, how the Senate makes decisions, and that's kinda interesting, you know? Right, maybe this is a really good time to lay out the lay of the land in the Metro Atlanta region. So, my sense is traditionally it's been a, you know, a blue Democratic center with red suburbs. And now, Atlanta's in Fulton County. Yes. The Calb and Cobb, and how, just how's that? Where are your voting blocks in Metro Atlanta? Well, again, Metro Atlanta, Atlanta solidly black and solidly Democrat, all ahead then. That's getting a little closer to that, I believe it. Because there's so much justification. So everything's not, I mean, you have a lot of, have more white council than we ever had before. Oh, okay. Since Maynard Jackson, but the suburbs, Clayton County, DeKalb County, those folks are moving into Atlanta. We're being pushed out to the suburbs. We being black voters. So they're having an impact. For the first time ever, Gwinnett County has a black chief executive. They've been run by a black city council person. A neighboring Calb County has a black district attorney. So they're black folks are having influence in the suburbs now while white voters, and I don't know if they're necessarily Republican or not, but white voters are having more of a muscle inside the city of Liberty. So it's spreading, but it's Democrats are having a more influential outside the belt line, as we call it, than they have ever had before. But again, there's still strong Republican support. I mean, you look at these rallies in the capital downtown, these folks are coming from deep South Georgia. They're coming nearby. I mean, and these are strong, right-wing, ultra-conservative Trump supporters who are just less than an hour away, or around the corner. So actually you see gentrification in the last couple of decades is kind of the, the core, the shuffle. Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, literally speaking, many folks of my ilk, my color can't afford to live in Atlanta anymore. You can't buy a new home is upwards of a million dollars in a black community. People are like, what? Are you kidding? It's a major problem, a major issue, a major, especially these COVID times, folks, I mean, what was the stats yesterday over seven million, eight million more Americans or gone into poverty since the summer? I said a lot of that's in the South. I mean, people, you don't have the jobs we once had. I mean, the jobs are gone. Let's look, people now, people are being evicted. Homelessness is gone up, poverty is gone up. Hunger is out the roof. Right. These are not good times in urban America. And Atlanta's certainly urban America. Yeah. And Congress has done nothing since April. And nor these candidates speaking to that. Again, I mean, if they're arguing back and forth with who's a radical, who's not, people are hurting. We don't hear that pass. We don't hear that, hey, I'm gonna help you kind of spirit. I'm not feeling it anyway. Right. And it seems as though the, I mean, both Purdue and Lefler have these really self-interested stock deals based on inside information from COVID briefings. And that just, that seems to just continue to unravel. And I would, I mean, I would imagine that would turn people off incredibly given the context you just laid out there of people really hurting. I wonder how much it's being chewed though. I mean, I think to hear that, I tell you what these charges back and forth, or maybe cause we hear them so much, it's kind of become deft till the morning. It's just kind of annoying. Cause the commercials are all, and that's all you hear, back to back to back to back to back, same ones. But I'll tell you something that's really true, but breaking news here, a consortium of black preachers, some 85 of them, have written an open letter, they're having a news conference tomorrow, an open letter to Kelly Lefler, complaining, charging about her commercials, particularly, can I be part of it please? You mind, Michael? Oh yes, yes, please. You know, I'm fascinated. I'm sorry, I was just, it's an open letter. And it's led by Bishop Daryl Watt Winston, that Mr. Daryl Winston, as led of this consortium of preachers. She said, your most recent attack against Warlock for sermons condemning police brutality, advocating criminal justice reform, and expressing support for measures to reduce gun violence, all concerns of his congregation, are beyond the pale, and cannot go unaddressed by members of the faith community. The reprehensible false equivalences must stop. It continues, we call upon you, Kelly Lefler, to cease your false attacks on Reverend Warlock's social justice theological and faith traditions, which visualizes a just and ardent world where love, fairness and equal justice under the law, against, from marginalized people of all races, is not only accepted as an authentic prophetic message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we call on you to cease and desist your false characterizations of Reverend Warlock as radical and socialist. And remember, Warlock preaches that everybody's a Baptist church once, and that pulpit was Martin Luther King Jr. So he's been beat up because of his association with Reverend Jeremiah Wright. They're suggesting that Lefler's commercials are morally incorrect. And that's really the point she's just been hammering. He's a radical, he's a radical, he's a radical. And I saw him in the debate really handle that quite well, trying to explain to her what scripture was. And she just came back with abortion. And that actually really leads me to, so here we are up in Vermont, we really don't have a white evangelical voting base and we don't have a black voting block either. So that is a subject of just total, I'm totally ignorant to how you've got, you've got the black church and you've got these white evangelicals, both praying to the same Jesus. And I'm just wondering what that dance looks like. I did see that photograph of Kelly Lefler visiting evidence you're Baptist. I mean, they do seem, there does seem to be some kind of I don't know, a back and forth affiliation. It's really a fascination. That's political gamesmanship when they show up in each other's pulpits. That's what political game, that's just a look right. She has not been back since he got her appointment. So let me tell you, where America and particularly the South and particularly Georgia is still segregated divided, is in the church. There's no, I mean, we might talk to each other and we see each other and commiserate with each other but on Sunday, even in your homes now, like this on COVID, it's a black church and a white church. There are black church leaders and white church leaders, be it Christian or Catholic. So there's, or Muslim even. There's a solid division or demarcation line between the churches. Sure, they'll visit, so we'll have multi ethnic, multi religious groups to meet on certain issues. But on Sunday, when it comes to worship, you got your black preacher, you got your white preachers, Charles Stanley was a major white minister, political minister here. So you have your major super church leaders and your community church leaders, but they're black or white, not together. Right, so when Lefler goes to Ebenezer Baptist, she is, I mean, she's not hoping to win votes from people in the pulpits there. She is, this is her casting her images. See, I'm not a racist, I went to that church. I mean, that's what I'm trying to sort of understand what she sees as the payoff there, I guess. Well, it was the campaign stop. It was something to make her look good. I mean, she intended, before she was running his ward off, she would have used that in her commercials, believe me, to win some black support. And there are some, there are black Republicans in there. I may never think about that. Right. One of my best friends is a radio guy named Shelly Winter. He loves Donald Trump. I mean, he's a friend, but we don't get a law politically. But I just, so there are black Republicans to be sure. You may have seen a shot of a guy named Representative Vernon Jones being lifted above the crowd, dancing floating over the crowd. Yeah. He's out at the Cap County. He once was a Democrat turned a Trumpster. He's applauded by some, but mostly derided by most, derided by most folks. But Lefler, that was a deliberate campaign stop and something she thought she could use. Well, maybe we win a couple of votes. Now she's, now it's being used against her when she talks about war knocks so bad. Oh, how are you there? So let's be, the church is a powerful voting blocking a powerful force. That's why I read that letter. Black preachers are more than as much as elected officials. Black church leaders, while they might be officially nonpartisan, their congregations vote. Politicians are part of almost every sermon, particularly during this kind of season. They follow their pastor. That's why they're called the shepherds. I mean, they lead a flock and they lead a flock of many of their flock to the voting post. Black folks interest, they thought or felt have always been determined by the vote. Well, because their thoughts are hard to get the right to vote. Right. Democrats have let us down, many say all along. And that needs to be changed. Many people derive the fact that they didn't so happy to have Barack Obama as the first black president. But they don't feel they did enough to urge him to do more for black folks, that they were so satisfied and being elected, not demanding things get done. And like LBJ said to somebody, got his name just that he says, I know you want me to do this for you, Black community. Now make me do it. Make me, right? Yeah, yeah, something. I don't know if it was Obama's style or what, but it created an incredible lull. I mean, people kind of said, OK, he's in charge. We can go to sleep now. I doubt we'll be making that mistake again. And that's sort of, Trump is the ultimate wake-up call. And you've seen the disillusioned voter say, oh, this vote actually has some power. I mean, I've never seen anybody take over a party like that. I mean, I grew up around the Trump era. I grew up in Jersey and went to Columbia University. So I've seen Trump's kind of, from afar, but to see him dominate the trickery and the gainsmanship, to dominate a party. And it's just amazing. I mean, that's why I don't like Trump as a president. But I've amazed his chicanery in a way he could almost take over something. And it's narcissism. It's just amazing how somebody who likes to do so much for himself can get others to believe he's for them. What has he done for anybody? What has he done for anybody other than his friends? It's quite a disturbing gift. But you do have to acknowledge it as some kind of gift. And also to create fear within the Republican Party to cross, I mean, and that seems to be what Perdue and Leffler have had the trickiest tightrope to walk is making, I guess, they see how rabid his fans are and they just don't want to alienate those people is. Yeah, I don't know. It's a bit of magic going on there. Well, the Republican friends I have, the black Republicans and others, not necessarily Trumpsters. I mean, they're the radical ones who wave the flag and come to his rallies. They're others who just business Republicans, who are not necessarily in favor of his aid domination of the party or be his style. So, I mean, there's those who vote Republican and those who live the Trumps lifestyle, I guess, or envy it. I mean, many of the people I see in the Trump rallies couldn't afford to eat in his restaurant. I mean, couldn't have, I mean, they've never seen Mar-a-Laga or, you know, it's just amazing how they worked with this guy who they had no idea what his lifestyle was like. Anyway, that's it. He's a political miracle, but I'm glad he's gone. Right, right. But also, as you know, as a storyteller, though, things won't be boring on the mind compared to journalists. That's for sure. There's not gonna be as much to write and talk about it. The TV era is going to. That, I mean, that's probably part of the formula is he gives, he does give the media something every day to chew on. And, you know, I hope people enjoy being bored again. It's like, oh yeah, politics is boring. Isn't that nice? Because it really, you know, this is what it looks like when it becomes a wing of the entertainment industry. That's true. You don't necessarily have someone who can confidently guide us through a global pandemic, say, you know. How's Kemp doing? How is your state government doing with COVID? I mean, do you see masks when you go out? Is it what kind of position you're talking about? Yeah, mask, mask of problem in most places. You get still eat out, dying in, but masks are generally, yeah. I mean, I don't see it a glaring misuse of people not wearing masks. I mean, it's not light, but I think people are generally afraid that they're gonna get it. I mean, I think there's a realization now that these masks things work, so that's where I'm reluctantly. They also wanna make sure, I think that the stores and restaurants stay open, you know. Don't wanna, I mean, there's a, that was a dark period when you couldn't go to your favorite bar or restaurants in inside. And I just think it's, so there's a realization that let's do what it takes and aim for business and to keep the jobs, but also for their own self-grandizement to be able to sit and have a meal outside of your damn house. They get small after a while. I know you have a bigger state up there, Vermont, so they'll go to you. No, I think, you know, Atlanta's probably got the population of Vermont five times over, I would think. Are your K through 12 schools all fully open or? No. No, okay. They're not, in fact, surrounding the county schools is closed down again. They're gonna open up the Atlanta schools, I think beginning of January for test run, but they've been closed, you know, like my school's been closed. I teach at Clark Atlanta University. I've been teaching like this remotely, so it's, they've been cautious. I mean, there's a, and particularly, you know, Black folks are a little apprehensive about, they've been apprehensive about the disease and now the vaccination is something that there are, you know, those who, President SCLC was mentioning yesterday, he says it about getting the vaccine as on many Black folks, which is why they think the first person to get it was a Black nurse. I mean, we thought that was purposely done to showcase a Black person getting it first. Right. Where the heart gets back to ski gear men and all that kind of stuff. Sure, sure. People are very wary of being experimented on by the government. Right, let's see how this works. Right. Who can we, who can we, who can we give it to? And also on that, well, I guess a bit of a different and hopefully positive note, Atlanta hosts the CDC. And is the CDC affiliated with Emory or is, they are, That's good, I know they're at Emory, Emory's right there in there. I mean, they're on a kind of on a campus, a border to campus of Emory, but I don't know if they're affiliated, that's a question I don't have an answer to right now. Right, do you, do you think Trump's real politicization of the CDC has heard him in Georgia, that it's a very, you know, an institution that Georgians are very proud of and that his, his going after him has been, been negative, negative, negative for him in Georgia, I think he's going after everybody, going after, even Rothensburg, who wasn't held in high esteem, particularly by the black community, you got a feel for a guy who's been beat up like that. I mean, even, even black folks have got, you know, president's beating him up and, and Kent for sure, they look so weak, still, still support the president. I mean, it looked less than men sometimes. Yeah. And the CDCs, I don't see how this guy could, he took it in the CDC. I mean, to be put upon like that, by somebody with that kind of power, that we talked about, to have your reports, you don't need any health authority to have your reports redacted by some president's henchmen, a health official of that ilk or that power, you feel like a child. Yeah. Like being told to go to the bathroom or, or paddled. It's just, it's humiliating. Right. And to be feeling less than a man. It's, that's a game to belittle and emasculate and you're reminding me, you're reminding me a little bit of Arizona right now where Trump was just, you know, doing the same with McCain after, you know, even after he's passed. And the people of Arizona just said, you know, you've been, you've insulted someone we're very proud of long enough. And I just, I'm just curious if George has got some of that same dynamic going on. I don't, I wonder how much that'll play out in the election though. No, that's a story that hasn't been really played out in the papers or on TV yet, but how that slapping down or repudiation or CDC may play out in the election. That's a good story I go, I won't say. But I know this Trump, I mean, a Kemp this looks like less than himself. He just looks such, he had a news conference yesterday. He was softer tone than he was before. But he said he had to follow the law at least he stood tough and followed the law. I'm inspected for that, but not, you know, count salary that much, you know? Right. You can see the bloodstains though. Yeah. Well, it's really, it is really hard to understand why and how these Republicans that Trump goes after don't stand up for themselves better. I guess that's just, yeah, there's certain just, you know, pride in your own person to stand up for yourself. Well, watching this series called The Boss, but a big city mayor of Chicago, how he can ride over people and derive people. I guess when you have the cloud of a president, you are fearful of what he can do to you, but you got to look at the mirror. You got to, yeah, I don't know. Well, politics is a two-way street. It can be exhilarating, but also can be disasters for your personal pride. Yeah. And the other factor is Trump's out the door. His days are numbered. He doesn't have many cards left and people are still, right, you know, tiptoeing around him. I love how he's, I mean, really, how he's, he's gonna walk out the door multi-millionaire based on what people are giving him. I mean, just based on his story-selling, his fantasy about how he still won the race. He's making millions of donations. Yeah, election fraud fundraising that he can just keep whenever he's not spent. I mean, that's a pretty good scam. He's a hustler. He really is. Just, I would like to, and it may be the last thing we touch on because we've actually covered a ton of ground already, but when we were talking a little bit about, I guess, the interaction of Christianity and politics, it seems the black church has very much got to understand teachings of Jesus in terms of social justice. And the white evangelicals have this kind of like personal salvation. It's a very individual, you know, connection. I am saved. And I don't know if you do, do white evangelicals bring their faith into their politics beyond abortion? I mean, when they say pro-life, is that, are we talking death penalty? Are we talking COVID? Are we talking, you know, how does that work? I never hear that expressed. I really don't. Pro-life is anti-abortion. That's, I mean, I've never heard expressed beyond that. Now I'm not a white evangelical. So I can't tell you, I don't live in that churches, but I don't hear expressed in the media or my colleagues or people I know who are white Christians. So even never heard expressed by anybody I've interviewed who's white, even a KKK member, or, you know, they'll just have a one pro-life is that. That's the filter in, yeah. While in the black church, in the spirit of Martin Luther King, the civil rights movement is spread throughout the South. The black church is kind of the headquarters for social justice talks about racial inequality, poverty. That's always been kind of the room where civil rights and our rights, our human rights are discussed and manifested through the Bible, through philosophies and that kind of thing. And I'm no Christian wizard. But I tell you, you grow up hearing this stuff. You might not know what the verses mean in the Bible, but you know what they're talking about. Right, right. So you've already voted, congratulations. Yeah, yeah, I got mine in. Actually, do you know if, does Georgia allow for processing of mail-in votes prior to election night? No, they have to be done after the election. Okay. The day of the election, it'll sit there. So that means odds are more Republicans will vote on the day of? That's generally been the case thus far. And then they'll be open in the mail for the next few days. Right, right. That's been the case thus far that Republicans like to show up the day of. But that's not to say, I mean, there's something, I must admit, I miss not doing an election day. The absentee ballot was not fun. It didn't hit there after. The rich. Yeah, it was passionless. It was like, that's mail is something. Being there, doing it, there was a difference. I'm glad you brought that up. I didn't realize what it was, but I was telling my wife, I gotta get into the mail, I gotta get into the mail. But that's not like, I gotta get to the polls, gotta get to the polls. It's a little different, you know? Right, right. Yeah, I mean, if it's a sacred institution, it's a bit like going to church. So that means if those mail votes just sit, chances are good, the Republicans will be ahead early and it'll just be, we see if as they process the mail votes, if the, what tend to be more blue votes, quote unquote, if those catch up and surpass. So. It'll be a long night, that's for sure. Yeah, yeah. It'll be a long and a really a really a tense, anxious morning. Right. And then the post-mortem, will there be claims of fraud here, claims of fraud there? It'll, the dust may take a while to settle there. So. It's gonna continue, the narrative has been set. So fraud, voter purging, voter suppression, cheating on both sides will be echoed and cried about. Right. Charged. Right. It's the way politics has become now because of Donald Trump. Yeah. And also because many human rights, civilized folks have said that we've been cheating for too long. So. Right. And it'll, I mean, we will get to see if we move with Trump gone, we move back to a situation where it's just kind of assumed that elections function, institutions function, but, or we've got some permanent damage here. That's. I think so. He'll never see Trump gone until he dies. I mean, he is such a mouthpiece now. He's such an, you know, an irritator. Plus he has a following. And what that's, he'll keep rallying them up for its own interests. Yeah. He'll have his base to go against political leaders to let people with his ilk, you know, he's gonna, he does not let go of power. He loves this stuff. Right. Right. I don't think he actually likes governing. So he'll get back to doing his. Right. His side show and let people that actually know what they're doing run the government. Cause we really need some, some functionality right now. And yeah, we'll see how this vaccine rollout works. Hey, Maynard, it's been fantastic. I really appreciate the time. Maynard is a journalist from Atlanta and he's got a depth of knowledge here that's just shared with us. Thank you for inviting me. It's been fun. Yeah. I'm not used to being on the side of it. You enjoy your holidays and here's to 2021 and here's to January 5th. Thanks. Thank you. Have a good week, you might have a thanks. Take care. Bye-bye. Bye. Georgia, Georgia, Georgia, Georgia, Georgia, Georgia.