Mayor Barbara Lee joins Tavis Smiley

0:00It's fall in Jeep country and during the drive-in-to-fall sales event get a great deal on 4x4s that refuse to be contained, like Jeep Wrangler. Confidence built into every drive with the most awarded SUV ever, Jeep Grand Cherokee, and freedom that can't be denied, with the open-air freedom and Jeep Gladiator. After 85 years, it's no surprise that Jeep became America's SUV brand, yet a great deal during the Jeep Drive-in-to-fall sales event. Jeep is one more awards-overdce lifetime than any other SUV brand, even the Jeep Grille Registered Trademarks of FCA US LLC. You are indeed, it has been a while, but I am always thrilled to be in common situation with my friend, my sister Barb Lee, former US Congressman now Mayor of Oakland, invited her on this program to talk about her being that lone voice in the wood in his 25 years ago when she opposed military action in response to 9-11. I rise today really with a very heavy heart, one that is filled with sorrow for the families and the loved ones who were killed and injured this week.

1:01Only the most foolish and the most chaos would not understand the grief that has really gripped our people and millions across the world. This unspeakable act on the United States has really forced me, however, to rely on my moral compass, my conscience, and my God for direction. September 11th changed the world. Our deepest fear is now haunt us. Yet I am convinced that military action will not prevent further acts of international terrorism against the United States. This is a very complex and complicated matter. Now this resolution will pass, although we all know that the President can't wage a war even without it. However difficult this vote may be, some of us must urge the use of restraint. Our country is in a state of mourning. Some of us must say, let's step back for a moment, let's just pause just for a minute.

2:09And think through the implications of our actions today so that this does not spiral out of control. Now I have agonized over this vote, but I came to grips with it today and I came to grips with opposing this resolution. During the very painful yet very beautiful memorial service, as a member of the clergy so eloquently said, as we act, let us not become the evil that we deplore. Thank you and I yield the balance of my time. Mayor Lee, first of all, let me just say, it's an honor to have you back on this program and spend a while. Number two, let me just say that I remember vividly watching you deliver that speech in the well of the house on the floor there. I remember it like it was yesterday, but radio is such an intimate medium. As you know, I've done radio and TV for 35 years of my career now, done both.

3:13But I love radio because it is such an intimate medium. It forces you to listen, not just to hear, but to listen. And when I actually had my team pull this audio and put my headphones on for radio to listen to it, I heard something that I didn't recall almost 25 years ago. And that is the emotion that is in your voice. Did you hear that? I heard it. Thanks, Thomas. Nice being with you again. Yeah, you know, I was, of course, shaken like everyone else. And I felt the sadness and the fear and the anger and the just worry about what comes next. And most importantly, all of the people who were killed. And actually, I knew one person. She was a flight attendant on flight 93, Mondagreen. You know, that flight was coming into San Francisco. And there were many people from the East Bay on that flight. And to have us, I was sitting in the capital that morning and had to evacuate.

4:15And I knew that, and I was remembered very clearly that those individuals on that plane took it down in Pennsylvania to keep it from coming in to kill us and hit the capital. And so, you know, that emotion is still with me because that plane would have devastated the capital. And you know, I was sitting there and who knows if I'd be here now. So it was, it was a terrible, terrible moment. And it's still remembering that is very traumatic, really. Dr. Cornell West was just on before you joined us. He was talking about you, not just talking about you, we're giving this mad love and big prop to you. And to the late great Ron Dellums, so many great heroes and she rolls out of the wonderful city of Oakland. And he raised those names and those voices, he raised those names and the voices that were raised, of course, during that time. In that clip, you talk about very briefly, you talk about coming to the decision to give that particular speech and oppose this emotion.

5:21Can you give me more backstory about how you came to that decision? You know, I always remind people I'm not a pacifist, but I'm a peace activist and I believe that we have to use every option before we, you know, the three legs of the National Security School is development diplomacy and defense. And you try each and every option first. That's the first thing. Secondly, I thought about this as a person of faith, but also as a person who understood the constitution. And next is a psychiatric social worker, psychology 101, you do not make hard decisions when you're in mourning, when you're grieving, when you're angry. I mean, that this was four, three days after these horrific attacks. So how in the world could anyone be rational at that point in the midst of this sorrow? And so I said, step back for a minute. Let's, let's look at this and come up with an appropriate response because I knew if we made a wrong decision then, given that 60 word authorization, it was set to stage four forever wars.

6:31And that's how that term got coined. I said that to the press. And I fast forward to today, President Obama has used that authorization. Every single president has used it. They've used it even for domestic surveillance and spying. And so the genies out of the box now. And we've got to put it back in. So I've been trying to repeal that for years and years and years. I was able to repeal the 2002 right after I left Congress, a couple of members picked up my, my repeal. And we got that finally repeal the the rock authorization. So it was like I was thinking, you know, and my dad was the first one who called me. He was a lieutenant colonel in the army. And he retired a lieutenant colon. He was as patriotic as anyone. And he told me said, that was the right decision. Don't let anyone tell you it wasn't do not send our troops in harm's way. And then I said, I'm three days after an attack because you all don't know what you're doing. He said, so you know, so thank you. Let me ask you, I love that you shared that story about your father, your precious father. Let me ask you to juxtapose these two things. You have your father calling you, saying, baby, you did the right thing. You made the right decision.

7:41Your father is applauding you. And I'm not saying this to cast a spursion on them. I'm just saying what the facts are. The other Democrats in the house did not stand with you that day when you cast that courageous vote. How do you square those two things for me? Well, they saw me, they saw my face and my pondering that that vote the day of the memorial and they came up to me and Elijah coming late. We love it late. Elijah coming. He said, yeah, I know what you're thinking. And I was in the cloakroom. And with him drinking a ginger ale and I wasn't going to go to the memorial. It was a rainy day. And I wanted to stay there and think through how I was going to do this, what I was going to do and how I was going to say it. But at the last minute, I ran down the steps. I said, no, Elijah, I'm going to the memorial. And I was probably the last person on the bus. And I remember during the memorial and I met him much later like five or six years ago, Bishop Nathan Baxter, who's a black, he was a black bishop of the National Cathedral. In his eulogy, he said, as we act, let us not become the evil that we deplore.

8:44That's what he said. And at that moment, I wrote it on the program and I've got to find that program. I wrote it down. And I was very settled with that because I knew that what I had to do. And it was going to be hard. But the Democrats, John Lewis was the first come one came up and said Barbara, I wish I could have been with you. And two weeks later, he went to the press and said, I should have been with her. Most Democrats came up to me and said, we totally disagree with you. And they tried to get me to change my vote because they said you're doing great work on poverty. And on HIV and AIDS, you're not going to win the election. And furthermore, you're going to probably get hurt because there's a lot of anger out here. It weren't hostile to me. It was just trying to get me to change my boat. And I said, no, out of friendship, really. And even on the floor, Henry Hyde, who was the right wing Republican, he was chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Tom Lanto, who was pretty to the right of Democrats, both came up to me after I spoke. And they said, look, we know it's hard. We totally disagree with you, but we respect you. And we know that you're standing your ground and we know you believe in what you said.

9:48That wasn't much hostility. But you know, it was kind of like, please, you know, don't do it. No, two things. And we got a few minutes to bother leaving. We come forward. Let me just tell you where I want to go when we come forward. First of all, she says you got to find that program. Yes, you do mayor. That program on which you scribble those words is a piece of history. Your vote is a piece of history, but that program on which you scribble those words piece of history. This audience knows that I love collectibles. I'm a collector myself. And I love just hearing or even reference that program on which she scribbled those words that helped her decide to cast that courageous vote that is now etched in history. We are talking about it 25 years ago. Yeah, please have somebody go to your stuff and find that program number one. When we come forward, she mentioned that her democratic colleagues were not hostile toward towards her. But she received all kinds of death threats. A lot of other people unknown corner west. I mentioned early was on this program. He mentioned it. He at the time was the chair of the Afro-Afro-American Studies Department at Princeton. They invited Dr. West just told us 20 minutes ago. They invited Barbara Lee to speak at Princeton. She accepted the invitation, but he told me what they had to go through to get her there to protect her born of all the death threats.

11:03She was facing at that time. He would never forget it. That was Dr. West just telling us that story. I want to ask Barbara Lee about that when we come forward here on Tavis smile. Barbara Lee who stood alone 25 years ago voting against military action after 9-11. She was then of course a member of Congress representing Oakland. She is now the mayor of Oakland. I want to close in a moment asking her about how that's coming along. Before I do that, though, the question I posed one more time ago, Dr. West was telling us a story in the first half of her inviting her to Princeton. She came. They were grateful for her arrival, but he told me, told you the story of all they had to do to keep her on the download hidden until she came back. She was hidden until she came out to speak because of all the death threats she was facing in that moment to the extent you feel comfortable, Mayor. Tell me about those death threats back then. Yeah, you know, they were horrible really. And I had to have security travel with me wherever I I couldn't leave for a while actually. But people were angry and called me a traitor.

12:06And that of course is radioactive. And I was like, of course, recharged him. Yeah, threatening. You know, and it was just constant. It was constant. And and Travis, I have my archives 60 there's 60,000. If anyone wants to go to Mills College to read them, I donated them. So those 60,000 phone calls and there were emails. There were letters to Mills and journalists have gone in there and read this stuff. And I wanted people to be able to read that because so it was clear to me was the right to decent is central to our democracy, which I know, but most people don't believe that.

13:22So you know, and in that 60,000 though, you will see about 40% thanking me. Coretta Scott King, Bishop Tutu, people from all around the world. And I saw Coretta Scott King at the black caucus dinner. She hugged me. She said Martin would be proud. That's what he wanted you to do. And so if you have time come up here and read everyone, some of this because the hate. And there's still a lot of hate now, you know, with white supremacy and I'm the lead plaintiff on a lawsuit. And so there's still a lot of stuff going on. But during that period, my son always tells us to about his street had to be blocked off when I went to visit him in Southern California. And it was horrible. But I had to, you know, stand my ground. I want to tell you. You know, stand my ground. I want to thank the Capitol police and the people who helped me through that period because it was it was awful. But we sometimes those moments come in one's life where you have to throw down and say, this is the right thing. I've support. That's right. You know, you know, our country. I'm patriotic as anybody else. But in a democracy, you have a right to decent and right to try to uphold the Constitution and your conscience.

14:33Yeah, let me close with two quick questions. Your staff is reminding me you got to run. I know you do. You got a full schedule. You're funny. You don't thankful for these 25 minutes. Let me ask you two quick questions. I'll let you go. One, you sort of just answered this last part. Now I am curious to us to how you situate that moment in your in your years of public service. How you situate that moment number one. 25 years later and number two, I just want to close by asking how things are going as mayor of Oakland. Well, I situate my work in terms of making sure that young people, especially I spoke at a school last week. They weren't even born 25 years ago. This was a high school. And we have to protect the history of that moment because in honor, first of all, of the people who lost their lives and first responders. And also lessons learned is the Constitution. You do not give over blank authority to any president to go to war forever. Congress has the responsibility to do that. And that's been lost in all of this. That's right. And that's why we're in the midst of Iran now. Trump, President Obama, all presidents have used that authorization to perpetuate war. And if you really believe in peace, the war does not get you to peace.

15:45Peace in home and peace throughout the world. And so that's what the lesson is that I try to tell young people. And in this moment, you know, fight for peace at home, fight for peace and abroad, uphold the Constitution and demand that the people's voice on issues of war and peace should be heard. And things in Oakland, Davis, Oakland is on the move. We're doing a lot public safety, illegal dumping trash is something else here in Oakland and in many cities, but also housing and homelessness jobs, economic development and government, government transparency and accountability. And so for those of you listening, I would love for you to visit Oakland, the culture here, Yalanda Adams was here yesterday at the Kaiser Center. She's a wonderful concert people are coming out. We still have the challenges that every community has. But our crime rates are going down, especially homicides, but not enough to where people feel safe. So we have to hit the pedal harder.

16:50But we have a department of violence prevention and ceasefire trusted messages, young people who have been challenged with the criminal justice system and have been trained to be trusted messengers to stop crimes from happening. That's working. So a lot is working, but we're on the move and have a lot of more work to do. And I'm up for reelection November 3rd working on my campaign now. You know, working on three jobs is usual. You always are. I saw that New York Times story about some months ago about all this trash dumping. It's happening in Oakland, Karen Bash, your sister has that same problem here in LA. And so I keep you in Karen Bass at the top of my prayer list, Mary Lee, and it's always an honor to have you on the program. Thank you, Davis. Keep praying because faith and works go together. There you go. And prayerfully working together with the city to unite the city and keep hoping on the move. Thank you for your time today and more importantly, thank you for your work and your witness for all the years of your brilliant career and for standing so strong 25 years ago.

17:54We we honor you for that, Barbara Lee. Thanks so much, Travis. Really nice being with you and hope you're well. Thank you. I'll be using it. Okay. Look forward to it. More of Travis, my name is Michael. What has sure it's been already. We thank your Robert Cutner of your American prospect for leading us off today in our one as usual, Dr. Cornel West, because of the top of the second hour Monday and Thursday, Dr. West was here. Top of the second hour and just how delightful was it to hear. Barbara Lee, what an amazing career she's had a long time, Congresswoman. And now mayor of Oakland running for reelection. I was just thinking about these sisters who've been running these major cities in in California London breed. The immediate past mayor, former mayor in in San Francisco, Karen Bass, of course running for reelection here in LA, Barbara Lee running for reelection as mayor in Oakland. So the sisters have been doing their thing here in California, one of these these major cities, wish her all the best in her reelection effort there. And of course, Karen Bass, as I mentioned, running for reelection in a tight race here in LA.

18:59So we shall see how this works out coming November 3rd, but it's going to be an important election come the midterms literally all across the country. And if you are listening in California, we invite you not just to vote, but to join us at our town hall. If you're listening California again, our town hall and ballot form called California voices is a sad, the act over the third. So we invite you once again to mark your calendar. This is going to be history. We keep saying history in the making because this has not happened before. We made you candid essentially running for state right office plus the candidates for mayor in LA, the candidates for sheriff in LA County, the candidates for city attorney, they're all coming. So it's just they're all going to build this one stage on one day. The stage turns every 20 minutes you ought to be here as well. So mark your calendar for a sad doctor with the third. The event is free, but you must register go to KBLA 1580 dot com right now. Save your spot. It's California voices once again. Saturday October 3rd come be a part of history with us. This is brought to you by KBLA talk with you, and the community voter education project more of TAV is smiling when we come forward.