Welcome back. My guest tonight has made several appearances on
this show as a legal and political commentator,
but never in person. Tonight that all changes.
Dante Mills up late with me tonight in studio here
on the final five.
Good to see you, man.
Thanks for coming in finally,
finally after all this time.
It's good to know you don't exist in a Zoom
box,
man. The last couple weeks have been obviously life changing
for this country and,
and, and monumental with that.
But what we've seen the last few days with this
presidential race,
I think is something that's going to be written about
for a long time,
no question about it. It's a whirlwind.
And I think what people need to understand is that
this is AI don't even know once in a lifetime,
once in a generation, maybe once in a nation where
you have a president who recognizes that he's not the
best person to lead the country anymore,
even though he has an opportunity to do that again
and he voluntarily steps aside.
I don't this never happened before,
minus George Washington, who could have decided to be a
king and said he didn't want
to. And President Joe Biden was gracious enough to do
that because he didn't have to.
He could have stayed in there despite everything else that
was being said around them.
But he decided to try to pass the baton.
And now it's going to be up to Vice President
Harris to convince the people that she should be that
person.
Or is former President Donald Trump the person now to
take the reins and lead the nation forward.
So I know a lot of people who watched the
the Biden situation play out from that debate and onward.
And look, I mean, when you look at video from
Joe Biden from four years ago,
eight years ago, 12 years ago,
I, I think it's, it's tough to not say that
there's a,
a marked difference in his,
in his appearance, in his manner of communicating.
But when you look at the accomplishments that many people
say that he was responsible for,
they, they were disappointed to see him off the ticket.
They thought maybe he was pushed off the ticket.
Do you buy that idea that he was pushed or
or because I think that a lot of people look
at what happened and say
they're connecting the dots. It's easy to try to connect
the dots.
But here's one thing we know for a fact.
Father Time is undefeated. And four years ago was four
years ago.
And the issue is President Biden wasn't running to be
president next month or in six months.
He's running to be president for the next four years,
the next 4. So you had to kind of Fast
forward and say,
if he has some issues now,
how is he going to be in two years or
in three years?
And I think that's what it really came down to.
President Biden now is out there,
he's talking, he has an agenda for the last six
months of his presidency.
But the issue was, could he continue that and sustain
that for four more years after,
right? And I think that that is where that that
that wall came up where he said,
maybe this isn't right for me and maybe this isn't
right for the country.
2020, excuse me, 2020 was a really unique year because
all the campaigning was done pretty much virtually because of
Zoom or because of COVID.
And we know that former President Trump talks about the
crowds at his rallies.
And let's be honest, he can draw a huge crowd.
What we saw tonight in Georgia,
though, was pretty unprecedented with,
you know, what about 10,000 people in that arena to
see Vice President Harris,
of course, I would say with with headlining act making
the stallion as well.
But regardless, we're going to see a lot,
a lot of that on the campaign trail from both
sides going into November.
There's excitement because there's a new candidate,
a fresh face and people want to be behind her.
And I talked about this earlier.
The issue is she's going to get opportunities to be
in front of a lot of people and convince them.
But can she do it?
It's one thing for people to be galvanized and say,
listen, we have somebody that has potential.
But once Megan the stallion comes out and she gets
introduced and,
and it's now time for Vice President Harris to step
up.
And I think she delivered tonight.
America needs to know what she stands for,
what her policy is because she was vice president,
but she was vice president for President Biden.
She's not him. She's her own person.
And I think she tried to use tonight and all
that attention on her early on to to get people
behind her and see,
this is what I stand for.
I reference it to like when a movie comes out
that first week in the box office,
it's going to be off promos,
right? Everybody may show up,
but will they show up that second weekend
that will let you know whether or not it's a
good movie.
So later on this week,
interestingly enough, the former president and JD Vance are going
to be headlining an event in the same arena in
in Atlanta that the vice president was at tonight.
And in between that, former President Trump was invited to
speak at the National Association of Black Journalist Convention.
A lot of controversy over that.
Many people who were part of the NABJ
organization, they were upset about that.
They didn't think he had a place to go.
But NABJ invites presidential candidates every time around this,
the first time he's going to speak to the group
there.
What, what, what, what, What does the former president accomplish
by speaking with this group of young upcoming journalists?
Well, he shows that he wants to be inclusive.
And if he is showing up,
then you have to believe him,
right? He could have decided this voting bloc may not
be for me,
they may not be behind me,
so I'm just going to ignore them.
But he says whoever's president has to be the president
of the entire nation.
I think that's what he's trying to show here.
And we have to believe that.
When I'm looking at politics,
I want to believe what people are putting forward until
they convince us otherwise.
I think I'm actually showing up as a big step.
They were a little disappointed that Vice President Harris didn't
show up,
but she also had a funeral today in Atlanta.
And I think Georgia being a crucial swing state,
she wanted to have her first rally in that state.
But I commend former President Trump for showing up at
an event that he may not be really welcomed that,
but he's showing up anyway.
Well, I think especially when you're in front of a
group of journalists,
you have to listen. And I think that's the most
important thing to do.
By the way, the vice president offered to participate via
Zoom.
They said no. We wanted to have it in person,
which is for the first time having Dante Mills in
person here in studio.
Good to see you, man.
Thanks for the insight. Really appreciate you for having me.
Enjoy your time in town.
Final Five is back after this.