Marc Morial

And I also think that the adversaries...

of our leadership, they throw wedges in between us if we allow that to happen.

And I just, you know, I just feel like it's counterproductive, but that you can have constructive disagreements.

We are in an environment today with the new administration where there's an assault on civil rights.

There's an assault on much of the progress we've made.

Many of these executive orders, efforts to shut down agencies, efforts to purge.

Look, the head librarian of the Library of Congress, Carla Hayden, distinguished African-American women, was fired for no reason.

And then they said, well, she's DE&I.

Well, you're not saying she's, you're saying she's black.

She was fired.

Right.

That sickens me.

And so we're in a period now where people have to recognize how important it is for them to be engaged, use their voice, use their vote.

It is not easy to deal with what we're dealing with, but there's an assault.

There's really an effort to undermine progress.

And see, in the short run, you hear noise, but you don't feel the damage.

In the long run, the noise will subside, but the damage will be done.

It's like a cut.

It bleeds and then it gets infected.

And so we have to recognize that in this moment and that to assert that is not just about, it's not about partisan politics.