Interview with Rickey Smiley on His Morning Radio Show

SMILEY: Sir.

THE PRESIDENT: Hey, Ricky. How you doing, man?

SMILEY: I'm good.

THE PRESIDENT: Glad to be on your show. Thank you. And by the way, Tuskegee University's good, but it ain't Delaware State, you know. I just want you to know. I'm prejudiced about Delaware State.

SMILEY: Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

THE PRESIDENT: They got me off the ground way back when I was starting.

SMILEY: Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

THE PRESIDENT: Anyway --

SMILEY: Now, man, I'm so excited about having you on. It's -- it's always a great time when you come on the show. The last time, we spoke during your campaign for president, and you committed to making good on promises that are top priorities for -- especially for Black folks, you know, people in the Black community like student loan debt, nominating the first Black woman to the United States Supreme Court, and marijuana reform. Now, that we're nearly two years into your, you know, presidency, what have you done to improve the lives of African Americans?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I hope I've improved the lives of African Americans like I said I would do. For example, too many African Americans were denied everything from Pell Grants, student loans, housing, etc. because they were arrested for possession of marijuana, many -- too many, all whites as well. So, anybody who was ever arrested just for the possession of marijuana, their record is expunged. They're not in the list more, and it's going to free up a lot of opportunities. I've also made sure that we are going to provide for student debt relief. You have 70 percent of African Americans receive Pell Grants. And what I've done, I've forgiven loans of $10,000 for every eligible borrower, an additional $10,000 if you had a Pell -- a Pell Grant. And -- and, you know, those historic resources of support, I've also put in $6 billion for HBCUs for a simple reason. You know, the -- the students at Black universities are extremely qualified, qualified as anybody at any other university, but because they don't have great endowments, they don't have these significant laboratories that teach every -- the technical things that need -- they need to be taught. And so, this allows these universities to build these facilities so that, now, you graduate and you have the same training as you went to -- you went to Harvard or you went to, you know, any other state university. And in addition to that, I kept my commitment. And I'm really excited about the fact we had the first Black Supreme Court justice --

SMILEY: Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: Ketanji Brown Jackson. And she is really something else. You're going to be really pleased with her. I've appointed more female Black Americans to the -- to the courts, to the federal bench than --

SMILEY: Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: I can believe every other president combined. And so, look, there's a lot -- and, by the way, you know, we now have a national holiday because I made sure that we're going to deal with what we said we were going to deal with. But the things that I think make the biggest difference, Rickey, that people haven't noticed -- I mean, it's not obvious -- is, for example, on COVID vaccinations --

SMILEY: Yes, sir.

THE PRESIDENT: I made sure that we went exactly where the Black community is, so they weren't left behind. So, the number of -- percentage of African Americans receiving their COVID shots is as high, in some cases, higher than all other Americans because I didn't want them being left behind. We went to their communities to make sure that the docs were available to give them what they needed. And so, you know, there's -- with police, we restricted [Inaudible] chokeholds and signed executive orders and no-knock warrants, but I still support funding the police. But we should be funding the police, particularly in Black communities where you have -- where you have more social workers. We have more people doing the kinds of things that are -- are that -- that are -- equipped the law enforcement to deal with things other than by pure force. And we have to hold cops accountable. But -- but -- but we need police officers. I'm not a defund-the-cops guy, but I'm fund them and give them assistance that they need. Retrain them as to how they, in fact, are trained. That's all – I provided the money to do that. So, there's a lot going on. And I feel really, quite frankly, good that, you know --

SMILEY: Yes, sir.

THE PRESIDENT: And we're replacing every lead pipe in America, ensuring everyone across this whole country has good drinking water. And I'm sure that South Carolina -- anyway.

SMILEY: Right.

THE PRESIDENT: And -- so -- so, there's a lot going on. I'm probably talking too much. I'm sorry.

SMILEY: No, no, no, no, no, not at all. You're pretty much answering all of my question because everything that you're saying was a question that I was going to ask. You know, it's election season. We're like a few days out. What is your strategy to help elect Democrats? And, you know, the second-part question, what are we doing to get people excited about coming out to the polls and vote because the polls are tightening in important races like races in Florida, races in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, all over the country? Are the Democrats -- do you think that everybody's excited?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think they are excited. I think -- I don't know for certain, and these polls are hard to read. But a lot of early voting. The estimates are there's a lot more Democrats early voting than Republicans. I hope that's true. And by the way, you know, I'm on -- I want this to be a celebration like -- like Juneteenth, you know. I want this to be a big day.

SMILEY: Yes, sir.

THE PRESIDENT: And one of the things you have to do is understand what the Republicans are going to do if they win. They're going to cut back on everything we've done. If you have a mom or dad on Medicare and they have diabetes, well, I've lowered the cost of -- put a cap of $35 a month rather than $450 a month for them to be able to get their -- their -- their insulin. So, they don't have to share it with anybody. They can have it. I'm going to make sure that there's insurance coverage for African -- we've reduced unemployment in the Black community from 16 percent or thereabouts down to 5.8 percent. We got more to do, but we're -- look, I -- and I've made a commitment. And you know I made it because you've followed it -- that we're going to have my administration look like -- look like America.

SMILEY: Yes, sir.

THE PRESIDENT: So, we have more African Americans in senior positions, from the head of the Defense Department on. You know, and by the way, I remember, I know you're a fraternity guy. Well, you know, The Divine Nine.

SMILEY: Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, for the first time ever, The Divine Nine met back last year in -- and on October last year with -- for the first time, the vice president of the United States, who was part of The Divine Nine, I might add. And it's a matter of making sure that every Black organization and the Black community is treated as fairly as possible and has economic opportunity because we still have a circumvent. If a developer builds a development -- housing development on one side of a highway, major highway and is occupied by a majority of Black and on the other side of the highway, it's occupied by a majority of whites, the same exact house will sell for somewhere between 15 percent and 20 percent less --

SMILEY: Right.

THE PRESIDENT: In the Black community than it will in the white. And we've got to change that. We're going to provide -- we're allowing -- we're providing start-up funding for new businesses, for, you know, small business administration. I'm just excited about what more we can do as well. You know, I mean, we've got to hold police accountable but fund them. We've got to make sure that African Americans have the same chance that anybody else does. And -- and that's not happening until we've gotten off with a big change.

SMILEY: I've been watching your presidency real close, President Biden. And I have to say, you pretty much answered everything I was going to ask. So, I just want to take this opportunity to say thank you for jumping on with us this morning and encouraging our people to get out and vote. And we look forward to having you again right here on the "Rickey Smiley Morning Show," President Biden.

THE PRESIDENT: [Inaudible] around, Rickey. I'm here before you. But, by the way, vote, vote, vote, vote. It's important. Democracy is literally at stake here. I mean, it genuinely --

SMILEY: It is.

THE PRESIDENT: Is at stake here. The HBCU homecoming season across the country is going on now. No better way to honor the legacy of HBCUs than by voting, voting, voting.

SMILEY: Yes, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, you all give it up and show your love right now for the president of the United States, Mr. Joseph Biden. Thank you, Mr. President. Appreciate you.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Appreciate you, Rickey.