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First of All with Victor Blackwell

Black Unemployment Rose Sharply In September, Jobs Report Shows; Legal Immigrants Begin Losing Medicaid Under New Law; Man Shot By ICE Has Surgery 11 Days After Being Shot; Viral AI "Hotel Lobby" Trend Sparks Debate; Mariachi Band Speaks Out After Backlash Over Bears National Anthem Performance. Aired 8-9 ET

Aired October 03, 2026 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:00:13]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Well, first of all, with black unemployment rising, does President Trump still want black workers to just wait, wait for the factories to open up?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: We're doing very well with the black jobs, African American jobs. We lost the car industry years ago. 54 percent of the industry went to Germany, Japan, Canada, Mexico. It's all coming back. It's amazing. And where your black worker is really going to do well is when those factories open. So I think they're going to be great. We've been doing very well. It's been a big focus for me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: That was in June. We just got a new report from September. The unemployment rate for black Americans jumped from 6 percent to 7 percent, a full point. Now, if you set aside March and April of 2020, the pandemic, that's the fastest one month increase in Black unemployment in 14 years. The data is worse for black women. Specifically, the jobless rate went from 5.9 percent in August to 7.3 percent.

Now the exact opposite happened to the jobless rate for Asians, Hispanics, white Americans. So the overall increase in unemployment is entirely among black Americans. The president's top economic adviser admits that's not good.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN HASSETT, WHITE HOUSE DIRECTOR OF THE NATIPNAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: It's definitely a cause for concern and it's something that we're studying very closely. It's -- if you look at like the poverty data, they went radically in the opposite direction And so, you know, our hope, we're going to watch closely, we're going to study closely what the cause of this was. It's highly likely related to seasonal factors and the race of people who do this kind of job as opposed to that kind of job. But we'll have more to say about this the next time we talk because it's something we're really digging into today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Experts always warn a rise in black unemployment can be a warning sign for overall unemployment. It's also a political warning sign ahead of the midterms, exactly one month from today. Here for the conversation, Democratic strategist Theron Johnson. April Chapman is with us, too, a former assistant state director and Georgia state advisor for Blexit and host of the Unshakable with April Chapman podcast. Welcome to you both.

April, let me start with you. The president says this election, he wants it to be about him, right? And his pitch to black voters was jobs, unemployment coming down. Here's what he told black Americans he would do. And the lowering of black unemployment this is during the campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The African American population, they're getting fired at numbers that we have never seen before. And migrants that are here illegally are coming in and taking their job. They're taking black jobs now, and it could be 18, it could be 19, and even 20 million people. They're taking black jobs and they're taking Hispanic jobs. And you haven't seen it yet, but you're going to see something that's going to be the worst in our history.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: At the point of the 2024 election, unemployment among Black Americans is 5.7 percent. It's now 7 percent. If his primary case was to black voters was about jobs, why should black voters support Republicans in November?

APRIL CHAPMAN, NATIONAL CENTER FOR PUBLIC POLICY RESEARCH PROJECT 21 AMBASSADOR: Well, I'll say this. The jobs report was very concerning. It was a 1 percent increase. However, black employment is up. You have about 110 black individuals that were added to the workplace, and then in the macro sense, 340,000were added overall.

So, when I analyze those numbers, it tells me that employment did increase. It just wasn't enough to outpace those that are unemployed. President Trump's initiative, I would say, in light of the fact that we're entering into the midterm elections, we should probably give it a little bit more time. The numbers are concerning, but I think we should look at the overall picture and not just focus on the fact that we still have unemployment that is still a concern.

BLACKWELL: Tharon.

THARON JOHNSON, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: The thing that's really dangerous about this report, Victor, and it's really concerning to me, is that the African American women that are actually actively seeking work, one of the things about the unemployment numbers, you have to be actively seeking work.

April makes a point about employment being up, but this is because people are now having to work two and three jobs to get by. This MAGA Trump agenda is not working, Victor. He promised us in 2024 he was going to increase the African American employment. He did exactly the opposite.

The other thing that I want to speak up for black women, many of these black women were attacked when DOGE came in, Elon Musk. They specifically went after people in the public sector, in the health care sector, and also in the education sector. These are jobs that a lot of African American women actually occupy.

[08:05:00]

The other thing that's happening here is that there's no plan from this president about entrepreneurship. Many of us are small business owners. You thrive when you create small businesses. But when he starts saying your black job, or, you know, these manufacturing jobs are disappearing, Victor, we all show up to our black job every now and then. Right? And you have your own black show, and I'm proud of you for that, brother.

But I know that you make a concerted effort to expand your net, to try to get more viewership than just black people.

BLACKWELL: So let me ask you this. The case that the president made was on the black jobs point was that the mass deportation would lift black employment.

CHAPMAN: Right.

BLACKWELL: We see what the unemployment rate is. Apprehensions at the southern border are way down. The tensions are way up. So what happened to that framework?

CHAPMAN: Well, the framework is still there in the -- in the construction industry. We had jobs added as well as in manufacturing. Now, I'm not saying that only black people are well suited to have those jobs, but there was an investment in April of 2025 where President Trump wanted to make a concerted effort to focus on apprenticeship.

We have baby boomers who are exiting the workplace, which means you have a deficit of skilled labor. I would like to think that black men want to have a healthy doctrine of work, and they want to actively participate in the workforce. Understand what Theron was saying in terms of black women feeling a slight because of education and health care, but manufacturing and construction, which is the heart of what makes America work, shipbuilding and things like that -- that takes some -- it requires us to at least note that is a positive.

And if there are undocumented workers that may have been taking those jobs, black men can now enter the work -- enter the workplace, and garner some of that market share. JOHNSON: You know, Keisha Lance Bottles, who's running for governor here in Georgia, said something on, and I was with her the other day. She said, skills pay the bills. We don't want just manufacturing jobs. I know you're not saying we just do that, but we want to be able to compete for all jobs.

But, Victor, I trust black women, and I believe that black women are going to save this country because they're smart, they're motivated, they're extremely fed up, and they're organized. And more importantly, they're unafraid. They're going to show the Republican Party on November 3rd and before, when early vote starts, that they're going to be defiant and going out to vote for the Democratic Party, who we're trying to focus on creating jobs for.

BLACKWELL: Well, let's talk about that. Because gas prices are up, food prices are up, unemployment for black voters is up, interest rates are up, credit card balances are up, Trump approval or disapproval is up. But when it comes to who people trust to handle the economy, polls show that you're not seeing that rise among Democrats.

Here's the latest NBC News poll that it's basically even. And NBC says that it's been even in the last three times they've asked this question on which party do you think would do a better job on the economy? And so what is your party getting wrong that even with all of these factors against Republicans, they're not flooding in to support Republican Democrats on the economy?

JOHNSON: Well, that number shows that we are now higher. You're right. Historically, victory has been even because --

BLACKWELL: It's within the margin of error.

JOHNSON: It was in the margin error. Historically we had this belief that when you put Republicans in office, the economy soars. That was probably true before the Clintons. And we definitely haven't seen this with Donald Trump. Donald Trump inherited a Biden economy that was thriving.

Now, let's give him credit. COVID hurt everyone locally and on the federal level. But when you talk about these numbers, we've seen numbers that are COVID related. Donald Trump is not doing anything to promote more small business, more entrepreneurship. He's not invested in colleges and technical schools the way that Democrats do.

CHAPMAN: That's actually not true. He signed by executive order this previous April several initiatives to increase apprenticeship and to encourage people for paid on the job training. Something I want to engage with that he said, though, he mentioned that black women --

JOHNSON: I said, I trust black women.

CHAPMAN: You trust black women and you talk about competing. I think when you artificially create jobs is what we saw during the Biden administration. And then when you take that out of the equation, we have to have an honest discussion about which party is being disingenuous in terms of artificially creating jobs and then actually creating ones based on skill and merit versus federal jobs are not a way, in my opinion to stimulate and say, hey, we have job growth now.

JOHNSON: You're actually making a good point that I'm going to make even better for you.

CHAPMAN: OK.

JOHNSON: During the Biden years, we saw female owned businesses go up minority business. And I know you know this minority businesses in this country is not just black people. It's actually a white woman. If you're a white woman and you own a business, you are classified as a minority owned business. We saw those numbers go up during Biden. We see them going down now. But back to your original question, Victor.

You know, I come on your show all the time. I keep it real. We cannot be scared to talk about job creation.

[08:10:00]

We got to let the people know that when Democrats are elected, we're going to create a level playing for you, playing field for you. And if you're your company is credible and you're qualified to compete, we're going to make sure that door is open for you. We want people to be able to make money legally and ethically through government.

BLACKWELL: These polls show you still have some work to do. April Chapman. Theron Johnson. I appreciate the conversation. Thanks so much.

CHAPMAN: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Thousands of legal immigrants are losing Medicaid benefits. Next, I'll speak to a woman who is now school scrambling to find out how to afford her partner's care.

Plus this AI hotel lobby trend. Have you seen this? You can't get away from these videos. I can't wait for this to be over. There is a growing complex debate about them. This is more than just fun online. We'll talk about it. Coming up.

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[08:15:27]

BLACKWELL: Thousands of immigrants who are in this country legally started losing their Medicaid coverage this week. They've been targeted by a section of the so called Big beautiful Bill signed into law last year. Administration officials say they're reserving taxpayer funded programs for Americans. But they're also leaving thousands of people without access to medications and treatments that keep them alive.

Even more people won't be able to get screenings and other preventative care. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the changes will lead to 100,000 people becoming uninsured by 2034. And some states are doing what they can to cover people. And some immigrants may be able to find coverage on their own. But still thousands, like my next guest, are scrambling to figure out how to cover their family's care. Teresita Morales is with us. Her partner depends on Medicaid to pay for nursing home care. He had a stroke several years ago.

Teresita, thank you for being with me. First, the coverage ended at the end of the fiscal year, which was just on Wednesday. How long before the end of coverage did you know this was coming?

TERESITA MORALES, PARTNER LOSING MEDICAID BENEFITS: Four weeks.

BLACKWELL: Four weeks. Which is not a lot of time.

MORALES: Which is last week of August. And I started scrambling at that point.

BLACKWELL: So at the end of August you learned about it?

MORALES: Yes.

BLACKWELL: And I understand the nursing home is now giving you an invoice, an idea of how much it'll cost to continue the care for the month of October. What did they tell you?

MORALES: Yes, I have it right here. It's for over $10,800.

BLACKWELL: $10,800. And I assume here that you don't have the 10,800 to pay it every month.

MORALES: No, I don't think I get that almost in a year with my disability myself. Yes, $10,850.

BLACKWELL: And so what are you going to do?

MORALES: I'm going to continue to fight the fight. He is totally disabled, paralyzed, unable to speak, walk or anything. On the bright side, he knows when he feels pain. So I'm going to just keep fighting for him. He's been in this system for almost 16 years and suddenly they decided to cut him off. I'm not having it. I'm going to fight for him and everyone else that needs it. And this is to me, insane what they're putting me through because he has no voice. I am his voice and I will continue to be his voice.

BLACKWELL: And so I know that, you know, coverage ended a couple days ago. He's still in that facility. You say that you're going to fight, but practically, what does that look like? What's that fight look like?

MORALES: It looks like I'm getting media coverage, especially from the Latin news stations. They have covered my story. They have done a follow up on my story. I don't know if I'm able to mention the stations.

BLACKWELL: Yes, I mean, you're on with us right now, so you are certainly --

MORALES: Yes.

BLACKWELL: -- being heard and seen.

MORALES: Exactly.

BLACKWELL: You said that -- you said that Eugene can't speak. Have you explained to him what the scenario is? Does he know what predicament is?

MORALES: Yes, I have. Yes, I have and I do. But he -- he's unable to really understand. He has been -- I have been the lead. I am the one that I talk to him. I tell him. He looks at me in a daze because he knows I'm the one that takes care of him. I'm the one that makes sure that he's going to get what he needs.

When he has an ingrown fingernail or toenail or anything like that, I check his body. I make sure that he's OK. He doesn't even realize it, except he knows he's in pain. So I always check him and make sure he's OK.

I have explained to him. And I look at his face, I hold his face and I tell him, baby, look at this is what's happening. I know you really don't understand, but I'm letting you know that this is what's going on.

[08:20:05]

They're trying to get you out of here because we have no insurance. And he just looks at me in a glaze, so I have to be there. I am his voice.

BLACKWELL: Well, Teresita Morales, I hear that you say that you are going to continue to fight for your partner, one of the 100,000 people who are losing that Medicaid support. Thank you so much for being with me and sharing your story this morning.

Nearly two weeks later, the Venezuelan delivery driver shot by ICE in Texas just had surgery now to remove that bullet lodged in his body. Will ask his attorney how he's doing, plus what their next legal move is as he remains in custody. That's next.

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[08:25:13]

BLACKWELL: Nearly two weeks after being shot by an ICE officer, a Venezuelan delivery driver in Austin, Texas finally had the bullet that was lodged in his back removed. 28-year old Wilbur Rafael Garces Perez's legal problems are not over though. He's still in custody on charges that he assaulted an officer while trying to evade arrest.

Well, this week a judge ruled the case against him can go forward. Prosecutors allege Garces Perez struck an officer with his driver's side mirror. They've released a still image from body cam footage in court, but they have not released the full footage which they say shows the incident. Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch is with us now. She is the attorney for Mr. Garces Perez. Thank you for being with me.

First, let me start here. After this surgery, a week and a half after the shooting, how is your client?

KATE LINCOLN-GOLDFINCH, ATTORNEY FOR WILBER RAFAEL GARCES PEREZ: He's relieved to have the surgery, have the bullet out of his body. And he's -- at this point feeling very stressed about the criminal charges and worried about what's coming next.

BLACKWELL: Now, is he still recovering at a hospital? Has he been moved back to a detention facility?

LINCOLN-GOLDFINCH: They moved him back to a detention facility the same day. So he's now in federal criminal custody as opposed to immigration custody, where he was for the first 11 days receiving very inadequate medical care, no pain meds. It was a really horrific situation for that first week and a half.

BLACKWELL: So this ruling from Judge Howell that this case moves forward and your client stays in custody, I mean, he said he was a flight risk, which is an interesting element because the initial stop was to remove him from the country. And now the judge says that this case must be adjudicated so you cannot leave the country.

What's your reaction to the decision from the judge to keep him in custody?

LINCOLN-GOLDFINCH: I don't agree with the decision. I've looked at these charges. This is 18 USC 111. That's assaulting, resisting. This particular statute has been used against ICE protesters and people who have been assaulted by ICE. Almost 300 people over the last year and a half have been charged under this statute. To me it feels retaliatory. And I know that Wilbur is not a flight risk. I know him, I know his family.

He has been doing everything that he knows to do to stay in this country. He entered legally. He missed a court hearing, but he applied to reopen it. He's a good and decent man and his wife is suffering without him. And I think that at the end of all of this, hopefully he will get some justice. But my experience up close with this case is that this is a man who has suffered some significant retaliation from the government.

BLACKWELL: And prosecutors alleged that it was in the speedoff from the ICE agents. His driver side mirror hit one of the officers and that is the assault. Does he deny that? I mean, beyond whether it was intentional or not, does he deny that one of the officers was hit by that driver's side mirror?

LINCOLN-GOLDFINCH: Yes, there is definitely different versions of events. And I think that it's really important to note that these two officers, one of them just did wear his body cam for the entire incident. And this was the man who shot Wilbur. The other agent had a body cam, but turned it off halfway through the incident. He just on his own accord, decided to turn off his body cam. And DHS has not been forthcoming with the American public about this

incident. And so I think that this is why I say at the end of all of this, I think we will have more justice and more visibility into this. But this certainly feels like the government has been selectively choosing still images and timing things.

For example, the criminal charges were filed the day before he was set to go before a judge in a habeas hearing on his immigration case. And all of this feels like it's calculated against Wilbur and potentially because the American public was really upset, we see another incident of violence at the hands of ICE. And these agents are so dangerous on the streets. And my client, I think, has suffered as a result of the government's feelings about how they are being perceived.

BLACKWELL: We still are waiting for a clear picture on the full universe of video available, as we were told that ICE agents would have body worn cameras. But back to the initial question. Does Mr. Garces Perez deny that ICE agent was hitting by the mirror on the car?

[08:30:00]

He does not. He does not say that he assaulted an officer. That that part is still very much in contention.

BLACKWELL: Attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, thanks so much.

So this AI hotel lobby trend, it has been everywhere. You've probably seen it, maybe have thoughts about it. Millions of people have recreated this through AI. We'll get into the discussion about why this is causing so many much debate. It's really nuanced here. We'll get into it, next.

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[08:35:08]

BLACKWELL: I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it. This AI "Hotel Lobby" trend. You've probably seen others post it all over social media feeds if you somehow have avoided it and have not seen this. This is the original. This is the real performance of "Hotel Lobby" the by Takeoff and Quavo.

Now, years after it came out, people are inserting themselves or other people, other characters into video using AI. Like here's an AI version of former President Barack Obama with former first lady Michelle Obama during the trend. Aniko Hart posted an AI video of her and Kevin Hart doing the trend. She says in the caption AI taking over to promote the reboot of "A Different World." Jasmine Guy jumped on the trend with an AI video of her character Whitley Gilbert rapping with Kadeem Hardison's Duane Wayne.

Not everybody's into this. Check out the comments on some of these videos and you'll see people are worried about all the water this is wasting. More on that in a bit.

Plus the fact that Takeoff was murdered. So how does Quavo feel? Well, he posted this take on the trend along with Victoria Monet this week. Probably not using AI.

So Victoria Monet noted in the caption of the video, no AI. Both of us have real albums coming out tonight. Listen and support human legacy. Here with us with a unique perspective is Dr. Andre Brock. He's an associate professor of Black Digital Media at Georgia Tech and is the author of "Distributed Blackness: African American Cyber Cultures."

You are my guy on stuff like this. I feel like it's a new moment. Like we've seen people use AI for like how would I look in the 80s? But the masses going in to now place themselves over other people. This feels like a different moment.

DR. ANDRE BROCK, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF BLACK DIGITAL MEDIA, GEORGIA TECH: It's absolutely different. Some of the changes are in the technology, but more is in the spread of AI and how people have more access to it through applications like CapCut and other AI video generators. And so people are taking this to an extreme that we hadn't anticipated when we first talked about this last year.

BLACKWELL: Illuminate says that the memes drove 1.46 million streams of the song in the second week of September. That doubled to 2.95 million streams the next week and in the first half of the subsequent week another 2.5 million streams in just those four days.

The latest CNN poll, though, on AI shows that people are uncomfortable with the growth of AI. 75 percent of people said that they were -- they had fear or concern when it comes to AI of younger people who we might expect to be more comfortable, less apprehensive, 79% of them said they're so afraid.

So how are people so afraid and uncomfortable but using it in this way?

BROCK: Some of it is sample bias. Very few people that are actually using it are actually going to be interviewed. But also, if my students are any indication, many of them are using it but are afraid to admit it, ashamed to admit it. Right. Especially for purposes that are frivolous, like this video. They're just not going to talk about how they use it as something that's leisure or something that's fun because they know people will judge them for it.

BLACKWELL: So there's also -- let's play some of the TikTok responses to these videos and talk about this element.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Y'all wait. Y'all with the environment because y'all want to be like -- because y'all want to be like Quavo and Takeoff.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So now y' all want to be rappers on the color show and imitate the "Hotel Lobby" by Quavo and Takeoff. We're not going to have any water.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BLACKWELL: Same poll, 87 percent of people said they're concerned about the growing number of data centers to support AI. The energy and the water used for these cooling centers talk us through that.

BROCK: So every time you use AI to generate a video, in particular, not even the chat that most people do, it apparently is the equivalent of a 16 ounce bottle of water and the energy necessary to power e- bike, say, for example. Right. And so it's a really frivolous use, especially when you consider how many millions of videos are being posted and reposted.

Once the video is made, the energy use is done. But every time somebody sees a video, they're inspired to make another one. And so it's just something that's multiplying, taking up resources that we don't necessarily have as much as we need.

[08:40:00]

More than just personally being annoyed by flipping through my feed and hearing the song over and over. How does this, as it relates to the culture, black culture and cyber cultures, change this moment.

BROCK: So this is the tricky part, right? And so this is a video that was released that the images are based on. And so replaying a music video should have no consequences, right? But once you replace the video, the images in the video, especially once somebody has deceased, then it becomes kind of ghoulish and necropolitics. Right.

And so the idea that someone who has passed, we no longer have the capacity to remember them as they were, we continually overlay other people's bodies on top of his performance is part of the problem. The other piece is respect for the dead. Right. And so apparently there's a video in Nolan Wells. I don't know if you're going to cue that one up. I hope not.

BLACKWELL: We're not.

BROCK: OK. But using that to say, oh, we should remember Nolan Wells in this way. And again, this is -- this is ghoulish behavior. Right. Then finally, the last piece of it is every time you see this

video, you see people who are not black often doing movements that are associated with Quavo and his nephew. Right. And so, I mean, Takeoff and his nephew. And so the idea that you can overlay, you can reskin a black person and then overlay and then have their movements be duplicated as if they are their own. It's just a huge problem.

BLACKWELL: Dr. Andre Brock, always good to have you in on this. Thank you.

BROCK: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: So the national anthem performed by a mariachi group after that special moment at a football game this week, the band was praised, but also got a lot of racist hate online. I'll speak to the founder of that group about the reactions. That's next.

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[08:46:02]

BLACKWELL: It is Hispanic heritage month, and the National Football League is celebrating with a series of events and performances. This week for Monday Night Football, the league invited a mariachi band to perform the national anthem before Chicago's game against Philadelphia. Watch.

So the crowd in the stadium seemed to appreciate the performance. But afterwards, there was a racist reaction online. The next day, band member Alonso Roscoe Jr. issued a statement on social media. Here's part of it. We believe that representing our culture and at the same time showing respect for the symbols of the country where we are working should not be a reason for hatred.

Cesar Maldonado is with us now. He's the founder of the mariachi band. He's also founder and president of the Mariachi Heritage Foundation. Thanks for coming in.

CESAR MALDONADO, FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, MARIACHI HERITAGE FOUNDATION: Thank you, Victor.

BLACKWELL: And so this was scheduled to coincide, obviously, with Hispanic Heritage month. What did it mean for you and for the band members to be invited to perform on this stage?

MALDONADO: You know, this is one of the biggest stages in American culture. So for a mariachi band to get to do this, we took it with the most utmost respect as musicians. And for us, being Mexican American, being from Chicago, with so much that has happened in the last year in our community, it just made this moment even more spectacular and meaningful than it really was.

BLACKWELL: And that's an important point because we were talking during the break. You were at home here in Chicago playing.

MALDONADO: Yes, yes. This is our hometown. The Chicago Bears are our home team.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

MALDONADO: Our recording studio is living literally blocks away from Soldier Field. So for us, it was an opportunity to present this beautiful star spangled banner with our mariachi instruments. People don't realize 2 in 5 Chicagoans are Latino. 3 in 5 Chicagoans are Latino. 1 In 5 are Latinos in the country.

There's a lot of mariachi music has surpassed Mexico. It crossed the border. Tradition travels, and Mexican Americans have really adopted the music. It's really American music. Mariachi's been around in the U.S. for a very long time.

BLACKWELL: We heard the roar of the crowd there in the stadium, but then there was the backlash online. Tell me about what came in. MALDONADO: You know, we didn't anticipate that backlash. We came -- we designed that performance as we do every performance with the highest level of musicianship. In this instance, we respect the anthem so much. We grew up listening to this anthem every morning in school.

So to us, it's an honor to get to perform it. The backlash really did not -- we really didn't anticipate it until after, but it's just really has nothing to do with the performance. Unfortunately, it happened, and hopefully it can be an opportunity for people to stop and listen to the performance, listen to the music, and understand that this is a mariachi performance with the utmost respect.

BLACKWELL: Two different reactions here. This first one came in from Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego. He posted on social media in support. He said, I don't understand the freakout. They didn't even sing in Spanish. It was all instrumental.

This from a MAGA activist who wrote, last time I checked, Mexicans have their own country and national anthem. We don't need people dressed like Mexicans performing America's national anthem. What do you say to someone who says that?

MALDONADO: Well, there are 39 million Americans that are Mexican of origin in this country. We're a big part of this, of the American fabric. And this is, again, music being made by American musicians here in Chicago.

[08:50:00]

So really has nothing to do with it. Open your eyes, man. Open your heart. Open your eyes and listen to this amazing performance. And this is all it really is.

BLACKWELL: Yes. In that statement that I read from Alonso, who's a member of the band, he wrote that showing this respect for the symbols of the country where we're working should not be a reason for hatred. And not just working, but living. Have been living here for a very long time.

Has this changed that view of the country, of the experience, this backlash that you received from the performance?

MALDONADO: You know, the last few years have definitely been interesting in terms of promoting our music. I think overall the reaction was way more positive than it was negative. We're excited to bring our music around the country. We're on tour now, performing all around the country. Mariachi music being performed in our orchestra halls and our jazz music halls because it's American music. So, we're just thrilled to be able to make this music.

BLACKWELL: All right, Cesar Maldonado, thank you for coming in.

MALDONADO: Thank you, Victor.

BLACKWELL: A black surgeon pioneered a life-saving procedure but did not get the credit. Hear from the doctors who have been fighting to change that now, decades later.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:55:47]

BLACKWELL: Getting history right matters. Even the seemingly small details, like the name of a surgical procedure. It's OK if you've never heard of Hirschsprung disease. I just learned of it this week that it's a deadly colon deformity. There's a surgical technique to resolve it. It's been known as the Soave procedure, named after Dr. Franco Soave in Italy in 1964. Turns out, though, that an American surgeon created it 12 years earlier in 1952. Dr. Asa Yancey. He was black, and because of discrimination in the field at the time, he was not credited. Dr. Yancey still became a celebrated surgeon. And three of Dr. Yancey's children are now also doctors.

I asked Dr. Carolyn Yancey for her perspective on her father being overlooked.

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DR. CAROLYN L. YANCEY, PEDIATRICIAN AND PEDIATRIC RHEUMATOLOGIST: Well, as a daughter growing up, hearing this story in my youngest years as a child, the perception was, that sounds so unfair. Why would they treat my father like that? Then as my education continued and I went into medicine, pediatrics, pediatric, rheumatology, and from time to time would see decisions made or care have a slight difference based on what appeared to be racism, I got to feel that same disappointment that I assume he lived with.

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BLACKWELL: Well, Dr. Carolyn and her siblings have been working with a group of international pediatric colorectal surgeons to correct the record. One of them is Dr. Marc Levitt from Children's National, and he says, promoting the appropriate historical context, that's a daily effort.

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DR. MARC LEVITT, CHIEF, DIVISION OF COLORECTAL AND PELVIC RECONSTRUCTION, CHILDREN'S NATIONAL: So I started to write book chapters and articles that refer to the Yancey-Soave. Out of respect to both surgeons, if I had to review a publication before it was published, I would send it back for review editing to properly include Yancey's name. If any of my trainees referred to a Suave procedure, I corrected them. And over the last four or five years, we're really getting the proper terminology out there.

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BLACKWELL: Well, thanks to that work, the procedure is now being taught as the Yancey-Soave technique. It's delayed but significant recognition for a pioneer who, according to Dr. Arthur Yancey, did not seek it.

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DR. ARTHUR YANCEY, SON OF DR. ASA YANCEY: And it was always amazing to me that my father had no bitterness about the Odyssey regarding the surgery which he invented. When I found out about this situation and would talk to him about it was quite unemotional about it and never tried to actually promote change that I knew of.

What this meant to me as a son was an event of which I could be proud no matter what the recognition has been. And I certainly appreciate the work that Dr. Levitt and my sister Carolyn have done to promote the truth.

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BLACKWELL: Also learned this week about the newly created Asa Yancey Prize. It's from the Pediatric Colorectal and Pelvic Learning Consortium. Dr. Levitt says it goes to the best resident publication and they plan to give it out every year.

So doctors Carolyn and Arthur Yancey, Dr. Marc Levitt and all those pediatric surgeons making sure the record is accurate. I see you

Now, if you see something or someone I should see, tell me. I'm on Instagram, TikTok, X and Bluesky and you can listen to our show as a podcast.

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Thank you so much for joining me today. Smerconish is up next.

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