Detroit Talk City: Kwame Kilpatrick & Karen McDonald

Hi, 21st. I'm your host, Charlie Langton. Welcome to Detroit Talk City. So let's get right into today's topics. We've got a big guest, our first hour, half hour of the show. Anyway, you may recognize this guy. He's the former mayor of the city of Detroit. Kwame Kilpatrick is here live in the studio. We'll talk to him in just a moment. Also later on in the hour, the Oakland County prosecutor will join us. Karen McDonald. She'll be talking about the state of the Democratic Party in Michigan, this year's crop of political ads, and a whole lot more. So we want this show to start off with a poll. That brings us to this question. Do ads influence how you vote? Just scan. See that QR code right down there? Scan the QR code at the bottom of the screen to vote. We're going to show you the results later in the show. And this show really, it's all about hearing from you, the viewer. We want to make it a conversation. So here's how to weigh in. A lot of ways to do it. Text us. Text us right now. There's the number 313-764-8844. Or you can jump into our Zoom room live. Meeting ID number 892-49090290. And of course, social media. You can hashtag us right here, Detroit Talk City. All right, let's get to our very first guest right here. Doesn't really need a whole lot of introduction over here. Kwame Kilpatrick. How you doing, Charlie? You all right? I'm doing all right. How are you doing? Man, I'm doing good. I'm doing amazing. God has been good to me, my family. So I'm all right. You look like you could go play for the Lions or something. Absolutely not. Please don't touch me. Are you working out these days? Well, I just stopped eating so much. And when I stopped eating so much, it uncovered about two or three muscles that were still there. And so now I'm about to get in the gym. My guy, Deron Dotson, told me I got to get in the gym. So I'm in there. You're happy though, aren't you? I am. I couldn't be happier. Great wife, great kids. My 30-year-old twins, Jelani, Jaleel, and then Jonas is 24. And then I have Latham, King, and Kinsley. But my youngest are four and two. I think you're ready for another kid. No, no, no. It's over. Oh, no, it is? Shot closed. I want to see a man, Charlie. Too much info on the New York Times today, Kwame. OK, that's OK. That's all right. So you want to get to good stuff or bad stuff? We're going to talk about it. Whatever you want to talk about. Did you pay your taxes? Do you pay on the house? What's the deal? Well, what's the deal is on December 15th, the federal authorities froze all of our accounts. They were frozen all the way to June. Why'd they do that? Because they wanted to and they can. It had nothing to do with investigation. It had nothing to do with anything that was done wrong. I've read all your stuff. You made a deal with the feds. There was an issue about restitution. How much you owe the city of Detroit. It's still an issue. Because when I got home, what they wrote me, several letters while I was in prison, several letters while I was on supervised release. My supervised release person, when I left supervised release, both he and the feds, the same people that signed it, sent me a letter that said you owe $164,000. I found out on Fox 2 that I owe $800,000 with no explanation. I think that was my story. I think it was, actually. I'm trying to figure out where did this come from when I asked the feds. I went down there. When I got that letter, I went straight to the U.S. attorney's office. I said, hey, how's everybody doing? And I wanted to talk to them about how serious this was and what is this. There's been no explanation. I had five meetings with them. They still don't know what they owe. Feds say it's about $800,000 restitution. You say it's about $160,000. They said it was $164,000. Then they said- In the letter. Then they upped it to $800,000. Three years later, they said it was $800,000. A recalculation. Are you still disputing the amount? Yeah. I think that the amount is crazy. The reason why I went along with the process is because I didn't do anything wrong. But I thought you made an agreement earlier this year to $800,000. The agreement I made was to pay on what they said it is. All right. So now I pay. I pay on it. We're doing great. But they froze my accounts for six months. They froze all my wife's accounts, my accounts. They've never done this in the history of this thing. Do you not make restitution payments? You're supposed to make a monthly or so? I make a monthly. Oh, you do make. How much do you make? How much I pay? How much do you pay? $560 a month. And that's the agreement that you made with the feds? Yes. Why'd they freeze your accounts then? Well, before that, I was paying $150 because that's what the supervisor released people said I should pay. Yeah. And so the last payment I made, though, if I had more, I paid more. I paid $1,500 in September. Do you think you owe any restitution to the city of Detroit? Absolutely not. It's a ridiculous- Zero. It's a ridiculous number. Listen, Charlie, in my case, you know the case. There was no misuse of public funds, no charges or no convictions. There was no stealing of any money ever in that case. True. There's no mis-money. And there was no loss to the city. So what happens is, let me tell you, they say there was 9.6 million. I filed an appeal. They came back with 4.7. I filed an appeal. They came back with 1.5. I filed an appeal and then stopped right there. And so what I'm trying to tell people in the city of Detroit, I ain't never stole nothing from nobody in my life. Do you have any regrets at all about what you did to the city or that time period? Well, I have regrets, but it's not about what I did to the city. I have regrets about the decisions that I made in office, decisions of sin, cheating on my wife, lying about it, the decisions of some of the people that I hired. But I don't have any regrets over what was done at Campus Marshes or the Seven Hotels or the Casino Hotels or the Super Bowl or the NCAA Final Four or the Riverfront. I don't have any. Or neighborhoods. Why do you think the feds came at you with guns blazing? Because I make good news, man. I mean, it's the same reason why Charlie Lankton has me as his first guest. Because if you have Kwame Kilpatrick on your front page, you sell papers. When you don't, you might sell some. But if you have him as your first guest on Fox 2, this show is going to be a hit. Because of Charlie Lankton and Kwame Kilpatrick. No, it's not. When did I meet you? I remember. Mackinac Island. You were a state rep. No. I'm about to mess you up. I met you before I was a state rep at DCL Law School when you were over the student body and you came in and gave us a fired up speech that we can finish law school when I just had two twins, broke, teaching school, and you said you can finish. You were the first person that looked me in the eye and said, man, I know it's hard right now, but you can finish law school. I did do that. And that was your prophetic word to me. I appreciate it. We followed each other. You've done a lot of things over the years, though. So let's go back. I'm going to get the house thing. Taxes on the house. You live in Novi. You owe 50 grand, give or take, on taxes. That's what they said in the news. News article was totally wrong. Do you owe anything? Yeah, I do. I owe two years of taxes. It's hard to pay money when they freeze your accounts for six months. I don't know a family out there. But some of them owe $20,000, $24,000. $20,000, $24,000 taxes, and I do the $25,000. So I got two years of taxes that I'm behind. I pay partial taxes on $24,000. They'll foreclose the three years. Be careful. They'll do it. They don't foreclose the $27,000. So that article is all just misguided and missed everything. It's just to get me in the news. There are so many families out here struggling with taxes right now. Why me? Why? Since there are so many fathers and husbands and children in a house. So why we put this in? Because you're Kwame Kilpatrick. That's why. Okay, all right. There we go. There we go. I'm not saying he's wrong. He's right. But listen, I owe the money. We're paying for the money. You made an arrangement with the state, the treasurer. We're working with everybody to get this done. It's a million dollar house. That's what y'all keep saying. I hope y'all are right. I've never seen it as a million dollar house. I've never praised that high. That's what y'all said. But I tell you what, I'm going to take it. I'm going to take it to somebody to help get help for this. So what do you do with your money these days? Well, you know, I speak around the country. You know, I just, I have an opportunity to share some of the tragedies, some of the sins, some of the missteps, some of the failures that I've had in my life and hopefully encourage somebody else not to do the same. What do you tell those people? What do you tell those people? I tell those people this in a nutshell, that I never had a problem with confidence. I never had a problem with boldness. I didn't have a problem walking in a room. But as a man, I had a problem with character and integrity. Let me ask you this. And that's what you need. When the first judge, you were the mayor of Detroit. And we don't have to go back all the things. They said, jail, you're going to jail. What went through your mind? What? You know what? I was the only kid on Linwood and the boulevard that really thought I would never go to jail. I did my homework. I cut people's grass and raked their leaves. I went to school. I didn't think that that would do it. And I just want to tell somebody out there, it's not about the crime as much as it is about your character and integrity. You could put yourself in a bad situation, a horrible situation, a criminal situation if you don't work on those things at the same veracity and intensity you work on your actions. You are a convicted felon. Do you believe you are? I am because those are my people now. I'm more akin to the people who have come out of prison and come through hell and high water than I am to politicians. The politics have changed so much since I was in. I don't even understand it. Would you run again if you could? I wouldn't. I mean, unless God said, run. And he got to show up in the bedroom. He got to look at me like that. So would you win if you ran? Oh, absolutely. I don't lose races. Now, let me tell you something. Could you be mayor of Detroit right now? I wouldn't want to be mayor of Detroit. What do you want to be? None of that. I don't have an idea to be in politics at all. I don't want to run for nothing. But you asked me if I did, would I win? You would win. I don't lose. When the federal judge said 28 years, what went through your mind? That's a real sentence. With helping your audience, when I was standing there, I was having my first, what I believe is kind of an out-of-body experience. I heard the judge talking. But I felt this kind of pouring down my head, down my back, all the way down to my feet. It was the first time I felt the absolute presence of the Holy Spirit. I can't explain it any other way. So she said it. But when I walked out the courtroom, you can remember, I uttered these words, no doubt, no fear. And I don't even know where that came from. So although I was in the courtroom, I was OK. When they slammed that door at Mylon that first night, it was the most depressing feeling that I'd ever had. It was the most gut-wrenching feeling, not because I was in prison, but because I was away from the duty that I had as father and husband, that I was away from Jelani Jaleel and Jonas. When President Trump signed the order to get you out, what did you think? I was in a solitary confinement cell, and I've been there for 225 days. For what? See there? There you go. You all remember the news. They said I got released. You had to go to quarantine there for COVID for 21 days. That was in May. I got released twice, and they snatched it, remember? So I stayed there from May to January. Stay with me, OK? We've got a lot of people who want to talk to you, OK? Let's do it. All right, we want to hear from you. We've got a tweet coming in right now. Here it is right here. Kwame Kilpatrick, has the media treated you fairly? Oh, no. We're going to get that answer when we come back. This show will continue in a minute. And this is Detroit Talk City. I'm your host, Charlie Langdon. We want to hear from you. Text us 313-765-8844, or you can join us in the Zoom room. Media ID is right there, 892-4909-0290. First guest, Kwame Kilpatrick. I understand we have so many texts over here. Everybody wants to talk to you. So let's get this. I get a little nervous when you talk about text messages. So let's just keep it all in the atmosphere where we need to be. You do know about text, all right. All right, there we go. All right, these are good. All right. First text right here. Has the media treated you fairly? You know, the media is the media. I was told by one of the producers and directors of one of the news stations, and he was standing with one of the managing editors of the paper, and they told me both that it's not personal. But when you're on the front page and you're our lead story, we get more viewers and more readers. And so we got to keep you there. That's what they told me. I said, wow. And so the media has been the media. Did you read the newspapers? Did you watch the television when you're going through all this stuff? I hadn't watched the Detroit news or read a Detroit newspaper in 15 years before I just came back. When I was in prison, I was sitting there watching the news one day. And I was in Oklahoma, but the Lord told me to stop because he wanted to get politics out of me. Most of the times I was engineering what was happening. So I hadn't read of Detroit. I didn't even know Mike Duggan was mayor. I was in prison in Fort Dix. And a guy asked me, he walked by me. He said, hey, man, do you know Duggan? And I said, who? He said, Duggan, Duggan. He the new mayor of Detroit. I said, Duggan? No, I don't know him. He said, no, you know the little white guy from the hospital. And I said, Mike Duggan? And he said, he's mayor. Blew me away. I had no idea he was getting in politics. I had no idea he was mayor. I had no idea. And that was the first kind of thing that I heard. Nobody told me that he was mayor. So let's get another call. You have so many people want to talk to you. All right. Next question here. Mr. Carol Patrick. My understanding is that you believe your restitution fees should be reduced. After all the crimes you committed, why should you get any reduction of federal restitution to the city of Detroit? That is awesome. First of all, the restitution is not to Detroit. All these people, pay us our money. Give us our money. Matter of fact, 3.6 million has been paid already. Go down there and see where your money is. That's the first thing. Second thing, all of these crimes that I committed, they're two different things. They're what you found guilty of. And then there's restitution, as you know. The restitution is not for the crimes that I committed. The restitution is based on one contract in the case. It was a $50 million contract on the Macomb Interceptor. And the restitution is under the definition that Bobby Ferguson, who was a subcontractor on the contract, he was paid $1.5 million more than he would have been paid if we didn't use an intricate scheme to get him to be subcontractor. And that's where you get the $1.5 million from. So sir, I know you're mad and angry, and you've been saying the same thing for all those years, but that's not what it's about. Not a single mathematical equation, not a single paper was produced to produce this 1.5, which is why I continue to win at the appellate court. So whatever you got in your mind, let's look at it. If you want to look at law, let's look at it, because I'll beat you there. Because it's not founded in any basis of fact, nor in this case or without. President Trump could have gotten rid of the restitution. He could have. He didn't do that. He didn't do it. He didn't fill out the paper all the way down. He's my man, but he didn't do that. It's okay. All right, let's look at the question right here. When you look at Detroit in 2026, what makes you most hopeful? And what do you think Detroit's biggest challenge would be over the next couple of years, five years? I think what makes us, and I say us, me and my wife, most hopeful is that a lot of the dream is being fulfilled. When we started and rerouted all those streets downtown and created campus marshes, when we put those stilts in that parking lot under the Hudson building, our dream was where the tower would go up on it. A tower is up on it. When we started the riverfront and started developing it out to Belle Isle, we thought it would go west riverfront, and it's gone west riverfront. And so all the things that we started, from the hotel deals and the casino deals, the book Cadillac, the housing that's going on around the city of Detroit, it's coming into fruition. I think the biggest challenge is how do you sustain the retail, the new retail that's here without residential units coming downtown in a more veracity, in a more profound way, because it has to be residents that keep those shopping centers alive, not visitors. And so as long as you don't have it, I think there's a potential that the tax credits run out, that are subsidizing the rents down there, and then it'll be an issue with the stores that are there. I tell you what, yeah, it's changed so much, though, since when you first came back to Detroit, you said, oh my gosh, what city is this? Stick around for one more. Okay, we got some more questions. Okay, gotta take a little quick break over here. Let's see if anybody is in the Zoom room when we come back. Our Zoom ID, 892-4909-0290. We'll take your Zoom questions, or text, or whatever. When we come back, don't go away. Welcome back to Detroit Talk City. I'm your host, Charlie Langdon. Do you have a question for our first guest here, Kwame Kilpatrick? Maybe you do. Text us, 313-765-8844, or join us in the Zoom room, that meeting number, 892-4909-0290. And I know that we've had a lot of calls, a lot of texts, and people, and we'll try to get to as many as we can in the time that we have. Let's go to the Zoom room right now. We've got Xavier from Detroit. What is your question for Kwame Kilpatrick? We're getting our Zoom room ready. It's almost like the boom boom room. There we go. All right, so we set it up. We'll get him in this because so many people. Yeah, I can't hear him. All right, there we go, Xavier. Let's see if we can get Xavier. Now, Aaron is our producer. Yes, I would like to know why you think you owe money to the City of Detroit. All right, he said, why don't you think you owe money to the City of Detroit? Okay, that's good, because, sir, there was nothing that you owed money to the City of wasn't in my case that dealt with money. That just really became a folklore of the case. The case was about a bunch of contracts. It was about me lording over those contracts, steering contracts, but it wasn't about money. But you kind of answered that, and you've answered that. You answered that before. But I need to tell him this. Every single contract in the entire case, every one of them, was done on time, on budget, and done well. As a matter of fact, the Macomb County contract, the one that's about the restitution, we won awards for it. I was given an award. I went out to the Macomb County Commission, made a big speech about it. Then all of a sudden it was messed up. But it was done fast, on time, and well. And that's what I want people to understand. It was still something. You were convicted. I mean, there was... Well, hey, listen, I was convicted... But you would do it just so we could. I was convicted before I got to court. Listen, you... Did you get a fair trial? Absolutely not. Did not get a fair trial. Absolutely no, no. We had jurors that were coming in there from Roseville and from Dearborn talking about, I never heard of Kewaunee Kilpatrick. Well, why haven't I heard of him? How much did race play in this trial? I won't... You know, race plays in the system. You know, Buddy Cianci, who was the mayor out in Hartford, Connecticut, he was charged with the exact same charges. He got found guilty and got five years. You know, the judge, when they sentenced Buddy, said he suffered enough. But a black guy in New Orleans, same thing. He got 10 years, and the judge said he suffered enough. The governor of Virginia, same charges. He got two years, and the judge said he suffered enough. Kewaunee Kilpatrick gets 28 years. See you later. Don't come back. And everybody in America, Charlie, thought it was unfair when they looked at the paperwork, except people in Detroit. President said otherwise. All right, let's get one more. We've got another text here. Detroit knows your story. What's the biggest misconception that people still have about Kewaunee Kilpatrick? Good question. I think the biggest misconception is that somewhere along the way, I went crazy and stopped loving Detroit. I was born here, raised here. The job was very personal to me. The reason we did all the rec centers and the 36 parks and all this stuff downtown, it was personal. I didn't want to be the bud of jokes anymore. And that's the biggest misconception. Some kind of way, I went crazy and stopped loving Detroit, or I stopped working hard, or I was playing. We worked so darn hard on that job. And I believe what you're seeing now is the fruit of the hard work that was done during the time of Coleman Young, Dennis Archer, Kewaunee Kilpatrick, that produced what you see out there right now. Will you come back? We'll do it again, here? Yes, let's do it. Let's do it again. Amen. Kewaunee Kilpatrick. All right. By the way, I was out in front of the courthouse with Lang and Langton, with Amy Langton. I remember. You were one of those stories there. Hey, you were the only two people on Fox 2 that I liked. There we go. All right, stick around. Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald will join us in the second half. Don't go away. All right. Amen. Thank you. I appreciate it. Back to Detroit Talk City Live. I am your host, Charlie Langton. Still to come this half hour, Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald should be weighing in on all state democratic party stuff and political campaigns, whatever. And she's here. You can ask her anything you want. In fact, let's talk about this poll question that we've got right now. Do political ads influence how you vote? We'll give you the results after. Scan that QR code right down there at the bottom of the screen to vote again. Results later on in the show. Again, this show is all about hearing from you. We want to hear from you, the viewer. It's just a conversation. That's what we want. And we want to know what you are thinking. So this is the part where you get to ask questions and we will get those answers. Weigh in. You can text us at 313-764-8844. Jump in on our live Zoom room. The meeting ID, 892-4909-0290. Of course, social media, you can hashtag DetroitTalkCity. All right, let's get right into it. Our next guest here, the prosecutor from Oakland County, Karen McDonald. Good to have you here. Nice to be here, Charlie. What are you up to these days? You know, I'm the top law enforcement official in the second largest county in Michigan. And unfortunately, that is a busy job. There's a lot of serious things going on. Do you get calls in the middle of the night? I get calls all hours of the night, depending on what's going on. Can you go anywhere without someone recognizing you? Yeah, it depends. No, you can't. Normally, you know, for somebody who's chosen a life that I've chosen and the job I have and the public facing of how prominent that is, I really actually enjoy anonymity more now than ever. So I wear a ball cap a lot. Do you really? I do, yeah. Do you just want to just chill? I want to be able to... I've never had anyone be unkind to me. In fact, I've had people approach me in airports all over the country sometimes and ask me about certain cases. But because of what I do, these are all such serious, heavy topics and cases, and people react to them in an emotional way. So you have to be present, and I am, much to, I think, some frustrations to the people around me, like my family, to meet that moment, and I do. Well, you were a judge for a long period of time. Sometimes these judges are a little bit... they don't want to get out so much in the public for whatever reason. You're always being scrutinized. As the prosecutor, you were running for attorney general. My gosh, that would have completely changed your life as well. It would have, yes. But, so what do you do to relax? What's a... at the end, I mean, can you seriously go home or can you go out for a drink after or have fun? I mean, realistically? Well, last week, you know, we couldn't go outside or eat a salad, so that was not a great week. The state of Michigan seemed like the Hunger Games. It was not great. But I think as I face these heavy topics and sit with victims of crime and stakeholders and the, you know, prosecutors and people in my office and really weigh these really heavy things, when I go home, I have this luxury at this moment, and I have... I don't have to do two jobs. You know, before the convention, I was doing two jobs, and it's been an adjustment, but in every way positive. You like politics? No. You don't, do you? I don't. I really don't. Why? Because it's mean, isn't it? It's not... it's not so much... it definitely is... it is... it is mean and often cruel and... It's nasty. It is, and I think... It's dirty. And I think people forget that these are human beings you're talking about. You know, we're mothers and wives and sisters and friends and daughters, you know? I mean, that's... And the minute I don't care about that, I'm not sure I'm myself, because... Can you win an election without going negative? I believe you can, yes. Well, for a statewide office, a county-wide office? There's a difference, Charlie, between informing the public about the differences between you and your opponent, and doing so in a professional and respectful way, than, say, mocking and making fun of candidates. And right now, particularly women, are scrutinized and held to an unbelievable difficult, ridiculous standard. The way they laugh, the way they talk, the way they dress. That offends me, and it is still rampant, and you're seeing it in the Senate race right now. Let's play one of the ads going viral. It's a Hayley Stevens... it's not really... well, it's viral, but she was at an e-course not too long ago, and let's see if we can play this one, and just give me your thoughts. I'm gonna be articulating on our behalf. I am gonna be working on our behalf. I am gonna be telling the stories on our behalf. And you better believe I'm gonna be doing it with a little bit of joy, a little bit of enthusiasm, a little bit of energy, and a little bit of stick-it-to-em, because that's the Michigan way. You know, my friend Joan Cheney, her opponent, but it's viral. And many are making fun of the accent. What's your gut reaction to that ad? Two things. One, as an elected official and a former statewide candidate, I have strong feelings about it, but I'm also a constituent of Congresswoman Stevens. And I'd say I wouldn't call her a close personal friend, but I've gotten to know her as a constituent and in my role as a prosecutor, and she showed up, and she works hard. And you know what? When I saw that clip, that really... I mean, Hayley Stevens has a lot of energy. She really brings light to a room, and that is authentic Hayley Stevens. However, that's not how I present, but I'm probably not as much fun as Hayley Stevens, to be fair. But is it degrading to women, do you think? What I wanna know is this. Why are we talking about the way she sounded or how she looked and mocking that and making that viral when we're not talking about her record in Congress? She was objectively voted one of the top most effective people in Congress. She has gone to bat. Now, hold on, let me finish. I'm a constituent. She was my Congresswoman during COVID, when the world shut down, when so many businesses and employees and employers and all sorts of elected and city and government leaders wanted to know what the federal government was going to do. And you know what she did? She took the calls. And I find, you know what? If Abdul Syed wants to go after Hayley Stevens for a vote she made or a policy she has, that's great. But the fact that that is going viral, when he posted a reel of lip syncing to a Taylor Swift song in cowboy boots, and yeah, that's fine. But Hayley, she's got a problem, and they use it to minimize her, to somehow characterize her as not as intelligent. And yes, I find that offensive, and I think that the majority of people do too. Let's take a look at this other ad. This is an, I guess, an attack ad against Abdul Al Syed, Hayley Stevens' opponent. Let's run that one right now. Leaders of Democratic women's groups call Abdul Al Syed's attacks on Hayley Stevens sexist, and the same tired playbook used against women. That's what Al Syed does. Al Syed called Michelle Obama's work uninspired and ineffectual. He claimed Gretchen Whitmer was bought and sold, and an employee said they were offered payment to keep silent after witnessing Al Syed disparaging women. Let's reject Abdul Al Syed's sexist attacks. UDP is responsible for the content of this ad. You've seen that ad before. What's the difference between the two ads? Well, at least it just pointed out what he said, not what he was wearing, or the way he said it, or making and mocking fun of his tone. Those two things are different. But you remember Howard Dean. Remember Howard Dean when he had the campaign, we're going to win in Michigan and Illinois, and he was, just for what he said. I mean, we could go down the line and say there's some candidates that have heavy accents running for Congress here in Michigan. I mean, you open yourself up. You're earlier in Senate. You're, I don't want to say a celebrity, but you are, so you get criticized. Right, but that doesn't make it right. That doesn't mean we all should say, well, what do you expect is going to happen? In fact, we should do the opposite. We should say, yes, somebody has a right to say what they want, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't hold them accountable for those tactics. All right, stay there for one moment here. If you've got a question for the prosecutor, Karen McDonald, you can text us at 313-765-8844, or you can go into our Zoom room. The meeting ID, 892-4909-0290. We'll be answering your questions when we come back. All right, time to get your questions answered. The prosecutor of Oakland County, Karen McDonald, is here. Let's see what the viewers are texting right now. All right, here's a text. Thank you for all your work that you've done for Michigan, and I appreciate your unifying of politics. So what do you think is the most important thing to keep in mind when we head into the polls this August 4th? All right, there's an easy question for you. It's a serious question. I like serious questions. I can answer that question for me, and that is, I am going to vote for candidates that do not embrace extremism. And when I say extremism, I mean candidates that are not necessarily there to institute policies, but to shout down and silence anyone else, even if it's in their own party. You're referring to the convention, aren't you? You were shouted down at Democratic Convention. In fact, you actually wanted the rules to change, and some scrutinizing the rules. There was a lot of shouting. Why? What happened at that convention? I was not personally shouted down the way Haley Stevens was, but I do know that the intent was to intimidate. They followed her around. They got in her face, and nobody did anything to stop that. I have a lot of issues with the voting that was not reliable and terribly disappointed in leadership in the party and electeds who will not say we need independent audit. And I've been very clear about that. But I am very concerned about the extremism and the bullying that's taken place in our party. All right. Remember to vote. All right. I've got to take a quick break right now. More with the prosecutor of Oakland County, Karen McDonald. Jump into the Zoom room if you have any questions. Welcome back to Detroit Talk City. Our guest here, the Oakland County prosecutor, Karen McDonald. You can text her at 313-765-8844, or you can go into our Zoom room, the meeting ID, 892-4909-0290. Do we want to take someone? Listen, this is an open question. If you want to take it, take it. Answer it, answer it. Let's try it. Is anybody in the Zoom room right now? We want text. No. Okay. All right. Text. Let's go to a text. All right. Text right here. What advice does the prosecutor have for Democrats who are feeling disillusioned by the current direction of the party? I started a PAC, a leadership PAC, called the Common Sense Coalition, as a result of all of the large group of people after the convention that were there and were not there that felt very disillusioned, very alienated by the party. And it's a moment that we really all have to dig deep and say what's more important to us. Is it more important to us to follow a party line because that's best for the party and making them look good? Or is it more important to us to say what we really believe and stand with conviction and ethics? And also, more importantly, there's room for all of us at the table. I don't believe that we should be a party where we have to shut out and shout down others that don't agree with every single thing that we do. You ran for AG, didn't get a progressive. Ali Sabat won the nomination. There's some issues there. I mean, if you think the vote was reliable, but he- Do you think it wasn't reliable? I know the vote wasn't reliable. Did the progressives steal the convention? I don't know what happened. You sound like Donald Trump. I don't know what happened, but I know that there were people who voted for me and their votes weren't recorded, and there were people who voted for me and their votes were recorded for Ali Sabat. Who's responsible for that? The party is, and they chose not to. What are they doing about it now? They chose not to do an independent audit. Do you think your nomination was stolen? I think that not getting that nomination is probably one of the best things that ever happened to me. You wouldn't want to be AG? I think the rise in extremism and the pressure that electeds and candidates are getting and succumb to at this moment, and not really saying what they think, is very scary to me. My first priority has always not really been politically motivated as much as where and why am I in this place, and how can I make the most difference? The prosecutor, in general, is not a political role. We don't ask what letter is after your name if you're a victim of a crime or you're a suspect. Should your office be political? Should you be a Democrat or Republican for attorney general or prosecutor? I think it makes it a lot more difficult, but I really feel grateful that I'm in a county like Oakland County, and we're not really blue or red, we're purple, and people really look more to, and the voting results show this, they look more to a candidate than they do a party, but no, when you talk about law enforcement, both myself, the sheriff, nobody should care what party you're in when you've been a victim of a crime. We're waiting for you to make a decision, for example, on the shooting at the Great Lakes Crossing, for example. We understand that one person is dead, another injured, we know the facts of that case, we're waiting for your decision. Whatever the decision is, it doesn't make a difference, does it? If you're a Democrat or Republican? No, I mean, really, there's not, you would traditionally think there are some law enforcement that even if they are politically aligned in a whole different aisle than mine, we really, in our county at least, always, our top priority is public safety. Let's take that shooting, for instance. We're gonna look at that case and we are looking at that case very seriously, and I can't go into the details, we haven't announced any charges at this moment. But what I will say is that the law in Michigan right now allows for a self-defense and it allows you, in certain circumstances, to carry a firearm. And that shooting didn't just result in an injury and a death, an innocent bystander was shot. It was 10 to 20 feet away from baby strollers. It's Great Lakes Crossing, I mean, when my children were little, we took them. And so what I'm thinking is, how can I ensure moms and dads and grandparents that you're safe and how do you protect yourself? And these are really difficult questions. I'm not sure I have the answer, but my job is always going to be to be completely transparent about what might put you at risk and do everything in my power to protect the people of my county. Bottom line, on that issue, you're still deciding. No charges. It's a very serious case and we're gonna take our time making the decision. All right. Do we have someone in the Zoom room right now? Let's go to the Zoom room right now. Jim from Madison Heights. Welcome. Yeah. Ms. McDonald, again, great to see you there with Charlie today and the program here. I grew up in Oxford and when that case transpired, it seemed like it very much touched your heart. And then your office, obviously, the prosecution against the parents of that case. I guess the question I have, and I mean, you know, that town is still healing and everything. Is there anything your office might have done differently? I mean, it was actually a first of its kind with the prosecution of the parents. And again, I always wondered about that, but I found a newfound respect for you, Ms. McDonald, for the way your office handled that. And again, that's from somebody that grew up in that community. And on that day, everything changed. I appreciate you, Charlie, for the show. And thanks a lot. Have a great day, everybody. Jim, I appreciate you for Zooming in. Thank you. Let's get that. Anything differently in the Crumley case at all? You know, that's still pending on appeal. So I'm probably going to not take the opportunity to go get into the weeds of what we did and what we didn't do. But I'll say this. I'm extremely proud of the work that the team, the whole prosecution team, which involved a lot of people, did. And it absolutely did touch my heart. It changed me. It changed, certainly, the people in Oxford and the school, and most importantly, the families of the kids who were killed and injured on that day. They are always going to carry that with them. And I think it is a tragedy that we should never normalize, and unfortunately, that's where we're at. Karen McDonald, prosecutor of Oakland County. I appreciate this. Let's do this again. I'd love to. Thank you so much. Thank you. I appreciate it. All right. Stay with us. We've got the results of our question of the day, our poll. We've got more when we come back. Charlie, we've still got time to fill. Go ahead and fill. Oh, we're still there. Listen, don't go away. Stay right there then. All right. We're going to give the results. Can we give the results of the poll? That's what I want to know. Bobby, can we do that? We're going to- Charlie, how would you answer the poll? The poll about- If you were taking the poll, what would you say? I think they do. I do. You know what? Because it's who's ... This is a dirty game. Politics is dirty. But sometimes they can backfire. Sometimes really negative ads can actually backfire and put voters in a position where they're just so disgusted with behavior and that they actually reverse their support. I would think people that are running for ... You have to really seriously decide if you're going to run a negative ad. I agree. I think that's the hardest thing for a candidate. People like them. I'm more ... I like a jingle or something a little funny or something. It's got to reflect your personality. But here's the deal. A lot of these political ads are not by the candidate. They're by the PACs that support the candidate. Now, can the candidate say that all the money that they're getting ... I mean, we could get this specific- What do you mean by a negative ad? A negative ad saying this is what this candidate has done and that's what their policies are and criticizing it? What about the Al Sayed ad? The attack ad on him was paid by the AIPAC people, right? I don't know what the ... But it's not paid by ... There's a lot of different names. It's not paid by Haley Stevens. I actually ... It's a PAC. To be fair, I do not know and I am not close to her campaign, so I do not know who paid for what. That's fine. But if it did- But I do know this. When candidates make decisions and pronouncements about they won't take this money or that, it's really hard for voters. I'm an elected official and a candidate and I can't tell where this ad is coming from. It's very difficult to know this and to find this out. That's what makes it difficult and you're right, if it's an outside party, you can't control it. Would you take outside money if you were running for Attorney General? Don't you have to if it's offered? Unless you're going to say, I'm not taking any money, I guess you can do that. I didn't take any corporate money for the AG campaign and I think I raised more money than any candidate for AG in the history of the state, but that wasn't because I felt like it would influence me, I did that because it's very important to voters right now that they don't feel that electeds will be unduly influenced. If you yourself, your campaign, did not pay for an ad, another group paid for a negative ad, do you have the power to say, don't run that ad? I'm not sure if I have the power to, but if that took place in a spirit and method in which I thought was unethical or, here's the thing, to me, the question isn't, is this going to help me in the campaign? And I know most people don't believe that, but it's the truth. You know what the question is for me? The question is, am I going to be able to live with myself and look myself in the mirror or to my children and say, yeah, we paid for that, but politics is politics? No, my opponent did. I did not. And I won't. Can you support the nominee for Attorney General? You know, I think your vote should be private. And I think there's a lot of things, there's a lot of things that have to, are still unknown between now and November. So I think after the primaries, I would like to have a clear understanding of where the Michigan Democratic Party is, is headed. I'm focused right now on the people in my county. Is it divided? Is the Democratic Party in Michigan divided? I've never seen it as divided as it has. I have never seen more extremism. I have never seen what I saw at the convention, which a lot of Democrats don't want to talk about. It was hate, bullying, and it made people afraid, especially people in the Jewish community. Karen McDonald, I appreciate it. All right. We will do this again tomorrow. The 5 o'clock news with Arouf Braj is next.